Grand Theft Auto 5: An Untold Story
by Aaron Ledgers
Summary: Kyalliara Hicks was an undersized, fifteen-year-old blonde: outrageously naive, soft-spoken, abnormally quiet - you'd think she'd be the shy and innocent type after looking at her face, but that's SO FAR from the truth it's criminal... literally. After being stabbed to the point of death in San Andreas, Kylie was saved by a man who threatened to kill her if she didn't work for him.
1. Prologue: A Father's Failure

**Prologue: A Father's Failure**

"Kylie!" Rodger Hicks tentatively called from downstairs. "Wake up! It's time for breakfast!"

As usual, there was no answer.

He'd been hoping that his daughter would come down of her own accord like she'd used to… in fact, he was practically praying that she would, but apparently she was still holding a grudge against him. His face fell and he slowly set his fork down with a sigh, brokenly looking at the four empty seats surrounding his dining room table. His new wife was out shopping for clothes, as usual, and his two step-children were 'hanging out' with their ruffian friends since it was a Saturday. Letting out a sigh and rubbing his eyes, the tall man slowly turned his head and glanced at the picture on the kitchen sink.

In that photo... his first wife was standing beside him and his daughter, Kyalliara.

His child's sapphire blue eyes seemed to sparkle so much in that photo… back then, she'd always looked happy.

However, that sparkle had gone out without him even noticing… and he hadn't realized how unhappy she had become until three months ago, when she'd blown up at school and punched her oldest step-brother in the face. The girl had gotten herself suspended for a week as a result of it… but even after that suspension had ended, she'd refused to step foot outside of her bedroom.

She hadn't spoken a word to anyone in weeks, not even him.

Rodger finally stood up and made his way upstairs, heading down the hall and stopping before his child's door.

"Honey," he called quietly, gently knocking on the wood. "I'm coming in, okay?"

Once again, there was no answer: only a sullen silence filled the air.

Rodger felt himself sinking into despair when he opened the door and slowly walked inside Kylie's bedroom. It was extremely dark inside despite being very late in the morning: there was only a thin shred of light peeking in through a tiny gap in the curtains. Upon inspection, the room in itself was extremely clean for someone who had chosen to lock herself away: normally, most teenagers would get sloppy in this type of situation... but his daughter had acted the complete opposite. Aside from the books stacked up on the wall, there was nothing to mark this room as her own.

There were no photos, posters, or even the normal feminine messiness that came along with being a teenage girl.

It felt as though the room didn't belong to anybody at all... and that made him feel a bit uneasy.

Rodger's brown eyes narrowed when he saw the familiar lump under the thin sheets: gleaming tendrils of his child's reddish blonde hair lying on the pillow signaled that she still hadn't left the safety of her covers since the incident at school. However, even though Kylie had been redeemed as innocent and had even gotten a shortened suspension, she had refused to forgive anyone.

Somebody had witnessed what had really happened that day… and as a result, the truth had finally come out.

In reality, Rodger had been startled when the principle had called him in a state of outrage, especially since it had been a Sunday and most school-related incidents were dealt with during the week. Plus, he'd still been fuming over the hospital bills for Jonathan's broken nose: he'd honestly tried to turn down the man's call since he didn't want to hear anymore bad news.

However, what the principle told him had rocked his world... and he'd felt his heart breaking into pieces of horrified shock.

He had fallen to his knees.

His hands had shaken violently.

His soul had practically been ripped in half with guilt.

The reason?

Well, that one's easy: he had yelled at his fifteen-year-old girl like a madman for breaking her step-brother's nose. He had screamed at her and called her a disgrace to the family, had told her that he was so ashamed to be her father that he could have thrown up. He had even grounded her after all that, and told her that she was a stupid child… that she was an idiot, that she had been in the wrong.

The principle had apologized for his mistake, of course, and his two step-sons had been punished thoroughly the moment they'd gotten home, but the trauma that had been inflicted on Kylie couldn't exactly be fixed by mere words. Rodger had told the teachers as much when they asked why the girl was no longer showing up for classes… the man had told them that his child hadn't left her room since that day, that she had simply lain in bed with no motivation whatsoever. He had told them that it was their fault for not paying attention... for not protecting his little girl when she had been left in their care.

However, in reality... he knew deep down inside that he was the one who'd done the most damage.

He had destroyed his own child within a span of only three minutes.

Still, the teachers had felt so awful about it that they'd even offered to give Kylie special home-tutoring lessons… but the girl had merely sat up in bed, looked at them blankly, and lain back down with no intention of getting up again. The adults had been thoroughly disturbed upon witnessing her extremely distant behavior for themselves.

Rodger slowly looked down at the ground and clenched his hands, feeling his stomach twisting in anger.

Once upon a time, Kylie had been a happy girl… she'd been so happy, in fact, that she'd been extremely close with both him _and_ her mother. The three of them hadn't just been a family, they'd been best friends with each other... but then, seven years ago, his wife had left home without even saying goodbye to them: shortly after that, Rodger had received a letter from an island city in California called Los Santos... a letter saying goodbye.

And he'd gone off the deep end.

Two days after he received that letter, he'd signed some divorce papers and sent them to her new address.

Until that moment, Kylie and her mother had been closer than anyone could have imagined… but in one instant, all the years they'd spent together as a family had meant nothing: her mother sent the papers back with her signature on them the very next day, without even a letter explaining why she was breaking away from their family. Still, that's probably where he'd made his first mistake: even though Kylie, eight at the time, had still been in shock over her mother leaving them out of nowhere, Rodger had remarried a gorgeous blonde woman named Lola only a week after his first wife was gone.

It had created a rift between them… a rift that had only grown deeper and more profound as time passed.

Soon after he'd married Lola and had introduced his daughter to her two new step-brothers, Kylie had begun ignoring him completely… and sadly enough, he hadn't even noticed the drastic change in her behavior until six months ago. Kyalliara was actually a very quiet and gentle girl who had an abnormally sweet personality: when things were going wrong, she'd come up with optimistic remarks that could genuinely inspire the same type of hope she'd always had.

However, after only a year of living with her new step-family, her own hope had practically been crushed out of her.

In fact, she'd virtually turned into a robot after her new mother and brothers had moved in: she hadn't smiled, she hadn't talked to anyone aside from her best friend at school, and she'd refused to have anything to do with the people inside her house. After nearly six year had passed them by, her father finally noticed her extremely distant behavior, and he had attempted to rekindle their relationship by being kind and paying attention like he used to.

He'd taken her out to eat, tried to immerse himself in her school life, and was always there.

Unfortunately, it hadn't worked: it was too late. After being ignored for six years, she'd done the same thing and ignored him no matter what he tried to do for her, and in fact, she'd even started sneaking out at night to get away from the house. He had caught her after one of these instances, but when Rodger had attempted to confront her about it, the blonde girl had merely glared at him and stomped up the stairs without speaking a single word. He'd thought his child was rebelling against him… after all, she _had _been fourteen, which was around the time that most girls hit that phase.

He'd thought that his child was simply acting like any other stubborn puberty-driven fourteen-year-old.

And that's why he'd started setting a few rules.

Rules that she'd purposely broken in order to make him mad.

Then, two months after her fifteen birthday, the incident at school had occurred and he'd taken things too far by blowing up on her. After he'd finally stopped yelling at her, he'd felt confused because of the expression on her face: he didn't enjoy yelling at his child, but he'd believed that she was in the wrong and forcibly steeled himself against the look that had been in her eyes. He had ignored it, avoided it... but nothing had gotten it out of his head.

Even now, he couldn't forget that expression.

For the first time in his life, Rodger had seen what his baby's eyes looked like when she was frightened.

No… not frightened… it was more like she had been stricken with terror.

His daughter was normally the type of girl who couldn't really express her emotions to other people using words… after all, Kyalliara Hicks was an exceedingly soft-spoken girl, and she wasn't exactly good at socializing despite her desire to fit in. She was actually fairly clumsy compared to other girls, and also a bit on the quiet side despite her boundless optimism... but as a result, she normally kept everything bottled up since she had no way of letting it out.

She was awkward with her feelings, plain and simple.

And yet, her expression that day had revealed more of her heart than any words she could have spoken. On that afternoon, his expressionless child had literally started _shaking_ with terror because of him. Her vibrant blue eyes had gone blank, her entire face had turned pale, and her mouth had opened and closed... as if she'd been fighting for the words to talk back; but then... something in her eyes, something important, had gone out like a busted light.

She had instantly stopped looking at him... and her eyes had gone blank with an expression total defeat.

It was the look of someone who'd given up on everything.

Since that day, she had refused to go anywhere aside from the bathroom: she had hidden herself away from the world and locked herself in her bedroom.

She hadn't left it since then.

In the beginning, Rodger had refused to put up with it: he'd tried forcing her into going to school, and had even pushed her outside on several occasions—including on a day that had been full of rain and thunderstorms—but she'd simply sat on the front steps and waited until three in the afternoon, when school was finally over. Each time, she'd simply gone back inside her room and stayed there for the rest the day. Rodger had told her over and over that she would continue being punished if she didn't stop acting badly... but then the principle had called and explained what had really happened to his baby.

And his grip on being a parent had been shaken to its core.

Rodger knew that Kylie was aware of his presence, so he slowly sat down on the bed and waited until she sat up with her small hands resting in her lap. Tendrils of her shoulder-length blonde hair glistened in the sunlight when she looked up at him, large blue eyes glittering like sapphires as she vacantly returned his steely brown-eyed gaze.

"Yes?" Kylie asked in a deadened voice; no expression whatsoever resided in her face. "What do you want?"

"You already know the answer to that, sweetheart," Rodger calmly muttered, slowly lifting a hand to brush a strand of her satin-like hair off her forehead. "You can't lock yourself away like this forever, Kylie... you have to stop hiding."

However, when the small girl flinched and abruptly jerked away from him, the man's heart nearly broke: this was the aftereffect of what his step-son had attempted to do to her that day. The blonde girl could no longer stand being touched by anyone, especially if the person was male. Still, he put on a smile and slowly lowered his hand, which made Kylie relax enough to look at his face again.

Her blue eyes slowly lifted and she stared at him with no feeling at all.

"I'm not hiding," the blonde girl murmured.

"Yes, you are," Rodger grunted, shaking his head in dismay before he rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Kitten, you've been hiding up here for three months now… the only times you leave your room are when you shower and when you use the bathroom, and even then you somehow manage to avoid contact with Lola and myself. You have to go back to school." For a moment, Kylie didn't move… but when she slowly lifted her head, he froze like a statue.

For the first time that he had ever seen, his daughter's eyes were full of nothing but unadulterated hatred.

"As if you have any right to tell me what to do," Kylie retorted, glaring into his eyes. "You don't know me anymore, so go away."

"Look," Rodger stated firmly, keeping his voice level when she continued to glare, "I called your mother yesterday… and we had a very long talk about what happened to you. We've both decided that you're going to live with her in Boston."

"Well, that much is perfect, then," Kylie stated softly, lying back down and turning her back on him. "Since I'm a disgrace to the family, I guess it's better that you send me away so you don't ruin your reputation. However, until I leave this horrid house, I'm staying in here: I don't want to look at your face anymore, so could you kindly get out of my room and leave me alone? After all... having _you_ as a father makes me feel so sick inside that I want to throw up."

He instantly winced and swallowed the lump that formed in his throat: his own words had just been thrown right back at him.

It didn't make him feel good at all.

"S-sure," Rodger stated hoarsely, shakily getting up and making his way over to the door; after putting his hand on it, he turned back and looked at his child with tears already streaming down his cheeks. "I'll bring your breakfast up in a little while and leave it outside the door… go ahead and eat it if you're hungry, okay?"

There was no answer from the blonde girl.

Rodger slowly stepped outside the room and closed the door before he leaned against the wall; with his face screwed up and tears streaming down his cheeks, the man wondered where he'd gone wrong… the people he'd chosen to let into his household had purposely been hurting his little girl since the moment they'd been introduced to each other. How could the two boys he'd accepted as his sons have broken his daughter like this?

Jonathan had attempted to rape Kyalliara that day… and she'd acted in self defense.

He'd initially believed the horrible story his step-sons had told him, and since there had been only one witness present, nobody had known the truth.

Rodger had yelled at his daughter without knowing what had really happened that day... and because of that, he might have lost Kylie's trust forever.

"Why did they hurt her?" the man whispered, planting a hand over his streaming eyes. "Where did I go wrong?"

Unfortunately, there was no answer to that... and when all was said and done, a very unhappy man went downstairs.

And ate breakfast alone.

There would be many lonely meals like this in the future... because tomorrow afternoon, his child... Kylie Hicks... would be moving to Los Santos, California.


	2. Chapter 1: The Fresh Start

**Chapter One: The Fresh Start **

The bus smelled of stale sandwiches and gasoline, the air conditioning had failed nearly two hours ago, it was almost one hundred degrees outside—and Kyalliara Hicks felt better than she had in almost three years. Washington was finally behind her and California was almost within her grasp: the horrible life she'd had with her father's family was already starting to fade away.

"Everything will be okay now," she mumbled to herself, closing her dark blue eyes with a sigh; tendrils of her blonde hair slid across her right eye when she set her head back against the leather seat. "Everything will go back to how it used to be once I get there… me and Mom will be happy together, I just know it."

However, she wasn't out of the water just yet since Jonathan, Andy, and Lola were the ones seeing her off: her dad had gotten a business offer the previous afternoon and had left on short notice. Lola was sitting next to the window with her hazel eyes closed and her dyed blonde hair frizzing up from the heat: a bag of chocolate kisses was resting on the magazine she'd been reading.

After a moment, the slender girl shifted the bag to her own lap and helped herself to three of the candies.

They were simply going to waste by melting in the sun, anyway, so she saw no harm in eating a few of them.

After she popped them into her mouth, she crumpled the silver wrappings and tossed them back inside the bag.

"Don't you ever stop eating?" Jonathan suddenly sneered from across the isle. "You're like a nasty little piglet! I mean, damn… those were meant for me and Andrew, not you! I wouldn't put stealing past you, though… after all, you're just like your mom."

Her elder step-brother's cruelty slapped her in the face like it always did, and her younger step-brother's expected laugh only added to the blow of his words.

The skinny girl instantly glared at the floor of the bus, seething with anger.

"Guess what?" Kylie stated coldly, giving the boy a grin that didn't touch her eyes. "Once I'm living with my mother, you'll have nobody to blame your screw-ups on: everything you did to me will either dissolve or I'll be proven innocent by your own idiocy. You think I'm bothered by the fact that you're forcing your own personality on me? Ha! You're wrong... so go ahead and have fun while you still can: keep on deluding yourself about who the piglet really is. After all, Karma is a bigger bitch than I am."

He instantly glared at her, but Kylie didn't see it since she'd turned away and purposely popped another kiss into her mouth.

_Think about something happy,_ the blonde silently ordered, turning her thoughts away from the depression. _Make your thoughts nice._

She pictured for the hundredth time what her mother's house in Los Santos would be like… then she started wondering if there would be a town square with tall trees, a cute little church, and a general store. Maybe there would even be a candy store, too, with pleasant old ladies selling chocolates made from an old family recipe: she could see it happening on an island, especially if it was off the coast of a state as magical as California.

"Ugh, honestly!" Lola suddenly snapped, making the blonde girl jump; she instantly snatched the bag of candy out of her hands. "I bought these for your brothers just in case we had a long wait between the rest stops! I didn't expect you to steal them and stuff your face before they could even have any! Jesus, Kylie, do you even know how many calories there are in just one chocolate? Not that it'd be bad for you to gain some weight… you're nothing but a stick, after all."

"I only had three," she quietly retorted, sighing in defeat. "Plus, they're melting... I didn't think it really mattered."

"Probably not fit for Johnny and Andy to eat, then… go ahead and have them if you want," Lola instantly muttered, twisting the top of bag and dropping it onto the floor. "Oh, my god… it's so hot in here. This heat is making me feel really sleepy."

"I know what you mean…" Kylie murmured, head drooping a little in agreement. "It really _is_ exhausting, in a way."

"Not much longer now," the woman sighed, pulling out a compact mirror and carefully adjusting her large breasts. "When we finally get to Los Sabtis, we'll all have supper at your mother's and relax a little bit before heading back home. I'll bet you anything it'll be cooler there—if not during the day, then at night. After all, Los Santos is an island city that's also supposed to be on mountainous, isn't it?"

"As far as I know," Kylie admitted, keeping her voice neutral. "I've never actually been there before."

"When your father asked us to take you to California, I was kind of surprised," Lola sighed, taking a tissue from her handbag and patting her forehead. "It's going to be awkward meeting her… I've never really been good with stuff like this."

"She'll make it comfortable for you," Kylie instantly explained, looking at the ceiling with a sigh. "She always does."

"Oh, don't you dare act like she's such a good person!" Lola nastily snapped, leaning back and closing her eyes as her face tightened into its familiar spiteful expression. "She's the woman who abandoned your father out of nowhere, remember? I'd never like her even if she was the nicest woman on earth! Honestly, I don't even like _you_ because _you're_ her _devil spawn_. I told you as much after I married Rodger, remember?"

Kylie watched with cold eyes as the blonde woman's breathing became deep. Feeling deserted since she'd fallen asleep, the girl looked around and saw that her younger step-brother had taken off his headphones and had closed his book. After a moment, she slowly turned to look out the window again and sighed when she saw the California ocean for the first time: it's color very nearly mirrored the hue of her eyes.

"We're going to be stopping at the Ferry Lift pretty soon," the girl dreamily noted, blue eyes sparkling. "I can't wait to see my mom again…"

"Big deal," Andy snorted, shooting her a cocky glare. "You're ditching your dad exactly like she did, you know."

"Uh, nobody was talking to you, jerk," Kyle sourly muttered, giving him a dark expression. "After everything you guys put me through these last three years, you can just _keep_ him for all I care… in my opinion, I'd rather not be anywhere near that man."

"Your opinion doesn't count since you're not a part of this family anymore," Johnny coldly retorted. "Get that through your head."

It would have been easier for Kylie if he'd shouted that statement instead of saying it with such icy calm: she could very well take care of herself in a shouting match, but he'd acted as though she wasn't even important enough to fight with. The fat man in the seat behind John looked to be enjoying the coldness between them.

His smirk make it unbearable.

"Your attitude problem shot that horse in the face a long time ago, you moron!" Kylie snapped, startling both of her brothers into staring at her: it was the first time since the nose incident that she'd even come close to shouting. "I'm really glad that I'm going to be in a nice little island town, and I'm going to do the best I can to enjoy my new life! I'm going to make lots of friends and do everything you purposely _prevented_ me from doing with Dad! I'll definitely find someone who'll really care about my feelings! Sure, you stole my father's affection from me... but he'll never, and I _do_ mean _never, be your real father_!"

After that, the girl turned away from her gaping brothers and angrily swung back into her seat.

If her mother hadn't run off seven years ago, there wouldn't have been so many painful memories for Kylie to escape from. In reality, she was pretty much doing the same thing, but these circumstances were somewhat justified. Still... before that traumatic event, the three of them had been utterly inseparable from each other: Kylie and her parents had loved each other so deeply that she'd once believed that nothing could ever break the bond between them.

Then… her mother had run away to California, which had caused the impossible: she had actually severed their relationship.

"Kya," Lola muttered, speaking without opening her eyes. "What were you and Johnny arguing about just now?"

"Nothing important," the girl muttered unhappily.

"Well, keep your unimportant opinions to yourself when you talk to my son, got it?" the woman snapped, deliberately keeping her voice quiet. "Better use your brush to neaten up that stringy yellow mop of yours: we should be arriving any minute."

Kylie obediently rummaged through her shoulder bag for her brush, keeping one blue eye on the scenery flashing past the dusty windows. There was a gas station, a stripper club built of shiny yellow logs, and then a row of mansions set on the beach directly in front of the ocean. Over and beyond the scattered buildings, the Pacific ocean loomed out across the horizon in a vast plain of blue, stretching on for thousands of miles. Then it was hidden by the trees: columns of redwoods marched against dark maples and pines. Violet, yellow, red, and pale blue wildflowers decked the roadside and fields around the forests.

"Wow, look at all the colors!" Kylie gasped, eyes widening in awed amazement despite her sour mood. "It's so pretty! Those fields look almost like gardens!"

"It's only pretty if you're into trees and wildlife; I'm a city girl myself," Lola noted with a reluctant expression. "I doubt I could get used to such a wild, lonely place on a permanent basis… but I'm sure it'll be fine for an airhead like you. Islands are not my idea of a fun time."

Kylie felt the usual pang of irritation stabbing her heart and leaned back against the chair, unhappily staring off into space and feeling completely alone even though she was surrounded by a busload of people. However, when the vehicle made a turn off the main highway and started rolling up a steep, forested hill, the girl turned her head and stared at the scenery with hollow eyes. Beautifully crafted houses were scattered along either side of the bus: beautiful winding roads wove off in every direction and wound through the forested slopes. In reality, everything she saw was beautiful.

Then... a huge sign caught her attention and made her straighten in excitement.

"Los Santos Ferry, one mile," Kylie read aloud, sighing in relief. "I guess I'm finally here."

At last, the bus stopped… and the front door wheezed open, letting in a blast of humid air. People instantly started getting up and grabbing their things, so the blonde girl started to do the same. However, when she slung her backpack across her shoulders and pulled both of her travel suitcases off of the chair behind her brothers, Lola let out a sigh of relief and shooed her on. Kylie cocked a confused blonde eyebrow and tilted her head to the side in perplexity.

Lola had made such a big deal of imposing on her real mother that the girl was kind of surprised.

"Go on, move it! I've changed my mind," she muttered, glaring at the skinny blonde girl. "We're just gonna head back home, okay? It's too exhausting."

"Suit yourself," Kylie muttered, scowling at the woman. "I never considered you to be my mother anyway. Bye."

And with that, she swept towards the bus doors and ignored how the woman's jaw dropped in offense: once she'd skipped down the stairs, however, the salty ocean breeze started brushing against her cheeks and lifted her hair off her shoulders. The tiny girl immediately closed her eyes and felt relief seeping deep into her heart... then she took a deep breath, allowing the salty ocean air to fill her lungs to bursting point.

Everything was fresh here... fresh air, fresh new life... a fresh start.

Her fresh start.

However, just as she was basking in her own feelings of relief, that's when she heard the voice she'd been missing for so long.

"Kylie, is that you?!" someone squealed, making her blue eyes snap open wide. "Oh, wow, you've gotten so much taller! You're not a kid anymore!"

Not even ten feet away from her was a woman with curly, dark brown hair and sapphire blue eyes: she had her hands planted on her knees and was grinning widely at the blonde girl from behind her half-moon glasses. It was her mother… she'd recognize that voice, that face, that _everything_ no matter _how _much time passed, or even how far away she had to go… her mom was right there in front of her.

"Mommy!" Kylie wailed, instantly dropping her things and tearing towards the woman at top speed; she tackled her mom around the middle so hard that she nearly knocked the poor woman over. However, it only elicited a cheerful laugh from the brunette: she instantly hugged her daughter right back and kissed her forehead repeatedly. "Wow! Mommy! It's you! it's really you! I missed you so much!"

"Ditto! BIG ditto!" the woman exclaimed, pulling back and looking at the girl with delighted eyes. "Wow... you've become so _beautiful_! You look just like your Daddy... anyway, welcome home, baby! We're gonna have _so_ much fun now that we're living together! I promise everything will be perfect! I even got your room set up this morning! We have to get on the Ferry to get home, though, so we've got a bit of a walk ahead of us!"

"Really?" the blonde girl asked, eyes sparkling with joy. "Awesome! I can't wait to see it!"

Behind her, Lola was staring at the scene with furrowed brows and her brothers had their faces sticking out of the window.

"Hey, piglet!" Andrew suddenly shouted, laughing in a mocking manner; Kylie instantly twitched and turned around, but she jumped when he threw some orange juice from his water bottle at her mother; the streams immediately doused the front of the woman's floral shirt, making her jump and blink down at herself like a startled owl. "That's the parting gift for _Mama_ Pig!"

"Why, thank you!" the pretty brunette laughed, grinning up at him with a smile that didn't touch her eyes. "I do love the color orange, after all: I mean, with me being a famous starlet and having my face plastered all over the _country,_ I'm fairly certain that this will make a nice addition to the magazine shoot I've got later on today! Have a safe trip home, you little brat!"

Lola's face instantly turned pale and she whirled around, frantically ordering her son to stop what he was doing and apologize.

"Wow," Kylie sighed, eyes gleaming with admiration. "Mom, that was awesome! You totally just scared the hell out of her!"

"You think so?" the woman asked, watching as the bus drove away. "I honestly wasn't kidding, though: I'm an actress now, babe."

Kylie bit her tongue and stifled a hysterical fit of the giggles: it seemed impossible, but it was probably true considering the woman was really funny.

Even though Rose Whatley was her mother, she couldn't pretend that they looked alike despite their identical eye color. In reality, Kylie looked almost exactly like her father: she had the same reddish blonde hair, the same delicate features, the same extremely pale skin, and the same slender build as her old man. However, she was shorter and skinnier than every single girl she'd gone to school with, and her lips were extremely full. Her mother, on the other hand, was short and somewhat plump-looking, and she had curly brown hair that slid around her ears in ringlets. Her lips were very thin and always seemed to be smiling at people.

Compared to her mother, the two of them were like day and night when standing side by side: they didn't even look related.

"Well, Kiddo, let's get you home," Rose slyly suggested, giving her daughter a cheerful wink. "I'll have a killer supper going and we can catch up on everything while we chow, eh? I'm so excited about this! I can't wait to see what you think of my condo!"

"Sounds good," Kylie sighed, grabbing her suitcases and following her mother up the hill. "I can't wait..."

With that, they started off towards the ferry that would lead them to the city of Los Santos.

**TXXXXXT**

"Eh... are you sure we can climb this?" Kylie asked, staring up at the hill with enormous eyes. "I'm kind of in shock right now."

"Yep, I do it every day!" the woman laughed, shaking her head. "When it's done getting fixed, I'll make sure to bring my car, okay?"

After waiting an hour on the ferry, Kylie and her mother had arrived at the port for Los Santos, California... and the blonde girl's mind had literally been blown away with shock. Skyscrapers and other large buildings gleamed in front of her, not too far beyond the beach: there were cars driving along roads, people jogging along the sidewalks, and tons of big city noises. She had been expecting lots of things: a city the size of Manhattan wasn't on that list.

Kylie and her mother had walked through the city, in spite of the hoodlums and dangerous-looking people wandering around. And this, friends, is how the blonde girl found herself walking up the steepest hill she had ever seen: it was practically a baby mountain with a curving, well-kept sidewalk that gave way to patches of flowers every fifty feet or so. Beautiful houses with shady balcony-porches and sparsely curtained windows lined the roads, and not too far away were big hills with other buildings that were just visible through the trees.

It was a beautiful place.

"Oh, Rosie!" a weak voice suddenly shouted, making the brunette halt. "A little help? I've fallen again..."

When Kylie turned her head, she spotted an old lady who'd somehow slipped off her walker: she was lying flat on the grass.

"Oh, crap!" Rose instantly squeaked, blue eyes widening in surprise behind her glasses; she hastily jogged over to the fallen woman and gently gripped her under the arms. "Mrs. McCarthy, you should have known better than to try walking after getting into a trolley accident! You're not ready for it yet! Kylie, go find some water, please! My old friend here has a bad habit of dehydrating herself."

"Okay!" the blonde girl called, setting her bags down; she instantly looked around for the friendliest-looking house, but when she spotted a little white one with the front door hanging open, she ran over to the entrance and knocked. "Hello? Is anybody home?"

"Eh?" someone called back. "Who's there?"

Kylie's eyes widened when another girl appeared at the end of the hall: she seemed to be around her own age, but she was really tall and leggy where Kylie was thin and small; she was also wearing blue jeans, a man's flannel shirt, and her curly red hair had been pulled into a tiny ponytail on only one side of her head; the rest of her auburn curls hung freely around her neck.

"Um, hi," the blonde timidly greeted, giving her a little wave. "I have a favor to ask you!"

"I've never seen you around before," the redhead exclaimed, jogging over with bright green eyes. "What do you want?"

"I need some water," Kylie timidly replied, wringing her hands. "An old lady fainted—sort of—in front of your house."

The redhead immediately motioned for the blonde girl to follow her and disappeared down the hall again: Kylie timidly walked inside the house, padding down the hallway into a large cluttered kitchen; the girl stood at a sink and was filling a glass.

"You moving in with Rose, little Missy?" a cracked voice inquired, startling the skinny blonde into jumping a foot in the air. "You that beloved little daughter she's always gushing about whenever she visits us?"

Kylie glanced toward the speaker after taking a few deep breaths and spotted a tiny old woman sitting in a corner close to a huge gas range. She was dressed in black and—in spite of the heat—was wearing a scarf that had been knotted tightly under her chin.

Sparkling brown eyes peered out at her from a face as round and creased as a dried apple.

She looked like a very gentle woman.

"Um, yes," Kylie quietly admitted, brushing her hair out of her eyes and reaching for the water the girl was offering. "I am."

"Well, then you tell Rosie that they're goin' to come lookin' for recruits, and soon: tell her not to answer the calls no matter what," the old woman said grimly, making the blonde girl blink. "I can't stop 'em… nobody can. Nothin' can stop 'em from tearin' our city apart, but if Rosie answers any of the calls they'll soon be sendin' on... the anniversary... she'll disappear and wind up dead like all the other starlets did. Do not answer the call... do not answer the call! Tell 'er!"

Kylie blinked and shivered in total confusion: somehow, the words made her feel weird.

The warning made her belly prickle with anxiety.

"Um, thanks for the warning, I think..." she mumbled, then jogged back down the hall. "Also, thanks for the water!"

"You tell Rosie what I said, Missy!" the cracked voice shouted, following her out. "You'd better tell 'er! I care about Rosie! She's the best in Los Santos!"

Kylie shivered as she ran to her mother, who had helped the old woman over to her porch in front of her house.

When the blonde girl knelt down and gently pressed the glass to the woman's lips, she drank eagerly and let out a sigh.

"Thanks," Mrs. McCarthy murmured, glancing at her with grandmotherly eyes. "My, my… you really do have your mother's eyes."

"I know!" Rose gushed, flapping her hands with a girlish blush. "She's my baby, after all! I'm so excited!"

"So… you're Miss Rose's daughter?" a soft voice asked; after a moment, the blonde girl realized that the redhead had followed her out of the house… but in the afternoon sun, her curly auburn hair gleamed like a curtain of fire. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you after everything I've heard! My name is Mikayla Reed, but everyone calls me Mickey since it's tomboyish like me."

"My name is Kylie," the blonde girl shyly offered, tentatively giving her a smile. "Nice to meet you, Mickey."

"Not at all! Mind if I help you carry those suitcases?" the redhead asked, grinning in a friendly manner. "They look kind of heavy."

"Sure, that'd be nice," Kylie admitted, giving her a grateful look; then she turned to glance at her mother, who was now helping the old woman back into her house. "This place is a lot different than Washington... everyone seems a lot friendlier."

"Wow, you're from Washington State?!" Mickey asked, eyes widening in surprise. "As in, Mountains and lots of rain?"

"Yeah, we did live in the mountains," the blonde confirmed, giving her a weary nod. "I prefer bigger towns, though..."

"Oh, I see... well, Los Santos is definitely big," Mikayla murmured, nodding a few times; when Kylie's mother came back out and the two of them started walking up the hill again, the redhead followed with a huge grin. "So, when do you plan on starting school, and what grade will you be in?"

"Oh, uh... I dunno about the first part, but I'll be a freshman," the blonde explained, following her mother around a corner and heading up a beautiful walkway towards a gorgeous blue and white house. "Wow! Mom, is this where you live?!"

"Uh-huh! Home sweet home!" the woman laughed, grinning at her daughter with sparkling blue eyes; then she glanced at the lanky redhead with a sigh. "Mickey, thank you so much for helping her with those bags... I really do appreciate it!"

"No problem, Missus R," the girl giggled, rolling her eyes with a dismissive hand. "Anytime."

"Well, let's get you upstairs to your room, okay?" Rose sighed, unlocking the door and showing her into the room; Kylie was instantly struck dumb by how open everything was... and on top of that, the entire house had been decorated beautifully. Her mother's art had covered every single one of the walls, giving each and every room an individual sense of colorful uniqueness. "Here we are: this is my humble abode! I call it a condo, but it's really a house... haha."

"Woooow!" the blonde girl whispered, slowly turning in a circle even as she walked; her blue eyes were wide and her mouth was hanging open as she took in her mother's masterpieces. "This... this is amazing, Mama! Did you make all of these paintings?!"

"Yep, every one of them," the woman proudly explained, planting her hands on her hips with a grin. "Do you like them?"

"I'm speechless," Kylie vaguely admitted, glancing at her mother in awe. "Words cannot describe how stunned I am right now. You're an actress _and_ an artist?"

"Yeppers! Now, your room is at the very end of the hall upstairs, all right?" Rose sighed, lovingly patting her cheek. "Head up there and get your things put away while I start making dinner... but just so you're prepared, there's a _big surprise_ waiting for you up there."

"Ooh, can't wait to see this," Mickey murmured, giggling when the woman winked at her. "Let's go, Kylie!"

"Coming," the blonde girl squeaked, hastily following her path when she thumped up the stairs. However, the moment she opened the door, she was attacked by a huge ball of black fur and went flying down on her back. "EEEEK! What is this thing?!"

"He's a dog, silly!" Mikayla laughed, shaking her head and watching in mirth. "And judging by that reaction, he seems to recognize you!"

It was true: the furry 'thing' in question let out a booming bark and licked the girl's face, making her gasp in recognition.

"B-B-Boomer?!" Kylie cried, eyes widening when the dog let out another deep bark and licked her face. "EEEK! It _is_ Boomer! Oh, my God, you've turned into a furry _blimp!_ How on earth did you get so big in only three years?! Augh! No kisses, no kisses! Eeeew!"

Mickey started laughing her ass off when the giant mutt leapt off her and spanked the ground a happy howl. When Kylie tried to sit up, however, he leapt again: his huge paws landed on her small shoulders and sent the tiny girl thumping down on her back. However, when the blonde's hand unexpectedly covered Boomer's big ear and started scratching at it, Mickey halted in her tracks and stared at them with an expression of total delight.

"Hello, big fella!" Kylie happily chirped, pressing her forehead against Boomer's skull and staring into the husky's big blue eyes with a grin. "D'awww, you're still such a cutie! Even if you _did_ become a blimp!"

When she kept on talking to her dog like he could actually understand what she was saying, Mickey stared at her with an oddly blank expression; then she cleared her throat and forced down the insane giggle that was trying to break free.

"I'm going to be polite and leave you two alone," the redhead drawled, swinging her bags up onto her shoulder. "Do you mind if I put your stuff away? I'm pretty good at sorting, and it seems like you've had an exhausting day!"

"Sure, thank you!" Kylie squeaked, grinning at her before she dodged a happy tongue; the blonde girl squealed and busied herself with wrestling with her oversized bear of a dog; when they finally stopped, however, the husky's tongue popped out of his mouth and his butt plopped on the ground, tail wagging frantically. "Oh, Boomer... wow, I missed you."

A loud 'woof' greeted the sound of his name being spoken.

_I can't believe he still remembers me... _the girl silently sighed, rubbing her dog's ears with a smile. In all honesty, for the first time in a while, she felt as though she were truly home. However, she was completely unaware of the events that would soon start taking place in her life over the next few weeks... events that would grow into something very, very confusing and dark... something unexplainable... something... dangerous.

Yes... very, very dangerous.

As well as deadly.


	3. Chapter 2: The Memory Gap

**Chapter Two: The Memory Gap  
**

Five days after she'd moved in and the hype had settled down, Kylie got back into the grind of living with her mom again. They'd made a deal with each other concerning who would make the meals each day, and it had been established that the blonde girl would get up and make breakfast for the two of them each morning since her mom was a late sleeper; however, in return, the woman would make a very hearty dinner after she got home from school.

Weekend lunches were still iffy on who would make what, but they'd promised each other that they'd manage to figure it out.

Kylie's new school, on the other hand, had kind of come as a shock since it was somewhat... different.

More accurately, it was a prestigious Private Acadamy called Ulsa High School. Kylie had been given several unique school uniforms since Ulsa apparently had a dress code, but the outfit she'd been given actually suited her tastes a lot better than she wanted to admit. It consisted of a white button-up dress shirt, an olive green vest, a pleated black skirt, and a red neck scarf that she was required to keep tied into a ribbon... rather than a tie. The outfit also made her school mornings easier to deal with since she didn't have to agonize over what to wear.

When she'd first arrived, Kylie had been dreading her introduction since she'd figured the kids in Los Santos would be just as judgmental as the ones back in Washington. However, much to her pleasant surprise, she'd been wrong… and in fact, the people here acted the complete opposite: the moment she'd introduced herself to the class, everyone had clapped and welcomed her into the class with open arms. The best part was that Mickey was in the same exact homeroom as Kylie: even now, she could still see in her head how the redhead had been waving her lanky arms with a huge, happy-go-lucky grin.

Kyalliara had soon been introduced to the redhead's closest friends, and all of them had welcomed her into their little group.

First was a boy with caramel skin, dark brown hair, and jade green eyes: his name was Ryan Harris, and he apparently had an extreme adoration for sports of all varieties. He was somewhat popular among the girls for being extremely athletic and always coming out on top in wrestling no matter who his opponent was. To put it simply, he was a sports nut, and a total jock to boot: he also acted like a bit of a player.

Second was a pretty black girl with frizzy red hair, braces, and large glasses: her name was Izzy Roden, and she was apparently the daughter of a well-known psychic who could predict the future when certain conditions were met. Kylie had quickly come to the conclusion that Izzy had been greatly influenced by her mom's rare profession, since she had an exceedingly abnormal obsession with ghosts and seemed to talk of nothing else.

Thirdly was a very scrawny boy with light brown hair, extremely pale skin, and husky blue eyes. His name... was Jacob Riley: Kylie immediately noticed that he was the most taciturn of the group she'd been introduced to. He didn't seem to talk very much, nor did he immerse himself in the conversations that had been floating between the five of them ever since Kylie had started attending school. His eyes, strangely enough, looked almost dead... as if he were a shell.

Or empty.

To be honest, she got a weird feeling from... a feeling that bordered on being extremely creepy.

Whenever she'd see him in class, his hands would always be shaking... and he'd always have a box cutter in his hands. When he wasn't taking notes, he was filing his nails and cleaning them with that box cutter: there wasn't a single day when she saw him without it, and it thoroughly confused her. However, even though most of her classmates were nice, and even though she'd been welcomed into Mickey's group of friends, there _was_ another group within the school who had openly started mocking the blonde girl. It had all started when she'd walked into the cafeteria on her first day: a beautiful girl with curly blonde hair that stretched down to the back of her thighs had approached with six more similarly beautiful blondes right behind her.

All of them were wearing skirts that had been cropped well above their thighs and had copious amounts of make-up on their faces.

And yet, oddly enough, their dark eyebrows mismatched their light hair color: it was kind of... ugly.

"Let me guess... you're the new freshman girl who just transferred here, aren't you?" the curly-haired blonde inquired, flipping open a compact mirror and examining her painted lips with a casual expression. "Well, I guess it looks like I'll have to teach you how things work around here. You see, little miss nobody, only the members of our little group, the CCS, are allowed to have dyed blonde hair at this school, and you haven't earned our approval yet. You should go get rid of that bad dye-job after you get home, sweetheart. It really doesn't look good on you."

"Um, excuse me?" Kylie snorted, staring at the taller girl in offended amazement. "Sorry to burst your bubble, but this is actually my _natural_ hair color. On top of that, my eyelashes match the color of my hair and eyebrows: nothing about my hair color says 'dyed,' all right?"

"Don't you lie to Penny! She's a genius!" another blonde girl seethed, snapping her fingers like a diva on a PMS rampage. "There's, like, no way you could ever have _natural_ blonde hair with such a prominent_ reddish_ tint, you moron! It's not, like, possible! You'd have to be Irish or something, duh!"

"Actually, it _is_ possible, just very rare," the shorter blonde demurely explained, tilting her head in quiet amusement, "and believe it or not, I _am_ Irish: seventy five percent of my ancestors came from Ireland, and the rest are pure Russian. I'm not going to dye my hair another color just because you feel insecure about not being real blondes, okay? Don't deny it, either... your hair is practically neon yellow, your eyebrows aren't the same color as your hair, and your roots are showing through: since this is my natural hair color, it's within my _rights_ to keep it this way. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to eat my lunch since my friends are waiting for me."

And with that, she'd slid her hand into Mickey's and walked away with the lanky redhead gawping at her from the side.

However, the moment they made it to the table, Mikayla had started laughing like a hyena.

"What's so funny?" Izzy asked, pushing her glasses up her nose. "Did something happen?"

"No, nothing much," Kylie had replied, giving a small shrug. "I simply told the truth to someone... but I feel a bit guilty now. I probably hurt their feelings."

"Don't feel guilty, Kya, because you, my dear, are _totally_ awesome!" Mickey exclaimed, slapping her knee. "You just made Penelope Fernaldis look like a total idiot in front of her little posse! For once, she really did look like nothing but a dumb blonde!"

"Hey, that's mean! Not to mention... _extremely_ inaccurate," Kylie sighed, waving a dismissive hand. "Wanna know a secret? _Real_ blondes got the false reputation for being airheads because idiotic _brunettes _decided to dye their hair blonde to look prettier: natural blondes are just as intelligent as anyone else... although, I'd figure that anybody with any hair color could be more sophisticated than _those_ girls. I mean, their hair alone reminds me of lemons, and their attitudes match it: pretty fucking sour, if you ask me."

Mickey and her friends practically pissed themselves from laughing so much, although Kya was kind of oblivious to why they were laughing.

She didn't know what they found so funny, since she was only stating the truth.

However, after that incident, Penny's group became the 'bully group' for Kylie: not that it really bothered her all that much to be harassed by them… after all, the artificial blondes never really went beyond petty insults or a bit of pushing in the halls. In reality, Kya thought it was kind of funny that they'd all dyed their hair the same shade of yellow-gold: it barely looked good, let alone totally natural, so the fact that they acted like it did seemed rather idiotic.

She found their jealousy more amusing than anything else.

Kylie spent several weeks bonding with her mother, adjusting to her new life, getting to know her new friends... in fact, she and Mickey had already become insanely close after only three months of hanging out together: the redhead was the complete opposite of the blonde... she was energetic, loud, obnoxious, and extremely funny, where Kya was quiet, demure, and generally soft-spoken... if not reticent. The fact that the blonde girl was only four feet and seven inches tall, while completely ridiculous, was actually the cement that had sealed their friendship: Mickey was extremely protective of small people.

Kylie just happened to fit into that category... and because of that, their friendship had progressed to the point where they'd actually done the unthinkable and exchanged diaries with each other. For those of you who don't know how big of a deal that is, you need to know: for some girls, their diary is everything they are... passions, days where things went wrong, secret crushes, embarrassing situations and/or mistakes, as well as a lot of personal feelings: all of those have literally been locked inside a secret chest made of paper. A girl's diary is basically her history and her thoughts in a completely written form.

There aren't many girls who have the capacity to do this for extended periods of time.

However, both Mickey AND Kylie were one of the rare few who had diaries stretching back to when they were little.

For the first several weeks of living in Los Santos, everything seemed to be going well... and yet, when weeks started turning into months, Kylie began to realize something disturbing about Mikayla's friend, Jacob. Something that started giving her chills. At first... she didn't really notice it that much, since he didn't really draw a lot of attention... but... after about a week, the girl realized that he was constantly staring at Mikayla with an unbelievably dark expression. It gave her shivers, and she didn't understand why he'd be looking at his own friend like that: after all, Mickey had always included him in everything, and she was always smiling at him. However, even though he acted normal whenever she was looking right at him, the moment she looked away... that same dark expression returned.

Kate was the only one who'd noticed... but perhaps that was simply because she was more observant of the people around her.

Despite er uneasiness, she'd brushed it off and told herself she was worrying too much.

But then, after a particularly uneventful weekend had ended, Mickey and Jacob didn't show up for school.

More days quickly passed, and neither of them showed up.

On the second afternoon of their absence, Izzy had expressed her worry and said that she had a really bad feeling about what was going on with them; Ryan admitted later that he'd just gotten over the flu so they'd probably just caught it, too. However, Kylie had become restless... and at the end of each day, after she finally left Ulsa Private High School and went home, she waited by the phone for hours in the hopes that it would ring like it used to.

It remained silent.

The next big event was strange, simply because something unexplainable happened in front of Kylie: Izzy, ever the klutz, had dropped her notebook in the middle of the hall and had instantly bent over to pick it up... but then, she paused and glanced at something on the other side of the hallway. Kylie had seen, quite clearly, the way she'd stiffened like a marble statue. Her brown eyes had gone extremely large behind her glasses... and then, she'd ripped her spectacles off her nose, covered her eyes with both hands, and run off in the opposite direction. She also smacked into a wall as a result, but hey... that was Izzy for you.

Still, when Kylie had followed her previous gaze, she hadn't seen anything suspicious: the hall was completely empty.

Then came the day that stirred the unease.

After almost a week with no sign of Mickey or Jacob, it was announced to the school over the intercom that her friends were missing.

And Izzy burst into tears.

When Kylie woke up the day after the news had been distributed, the girl donned one of her uniforms and left for school early: she wanted to take a walk and sort out her issues, since she'd felt terrified about Mickey's disappearance ever since the announcement. When she arrived at the gates, the blonde girl finally stopped walking and looked up at the brilliant California sky, shivering when a warm ocean breeze ruffled through the trees: Kya felt as though she wanted to cry, but at the same time... she didn't know why that emotion intensified every time she thought about Mickey. She had only known the redhead for a few months at the most, which wasn't exactly enough time to become so deeply attached to someone... yet, attachment is what she felt for the tomboy.

When the wind grew stronger and lifted her shoulder-length hair away from her neck like a rippling cloud, she closed her eyes and took a deep breath. That's when she heard something odd... a footstep, coming directly behind her. When Kylie opened her eyes and turned around, she spotted a tall black man leaning against the wall across the street... watching her. She blinked and shivered, feeling oddly cold without knowing why...

Then, he approached... and her heart quickened in fright.

"You a friend of lil' Vax?" he grunted, staring down at the terrified blonde girl. "Vaxlithium's friend?"

"Huh?" Kya asked, blinking with large eyes; she hesitantly shook her head and backed up a step. "Who's... er, Vaxlithium? What kind of a name _is_ that?"

"It's a code, girl," the man drawled, keeping his eyes peeled; he peered up and down the streets before leaning forward. "Listen closely... 895 Walker Road: the gated mansion at the end of the street. Hurry up and get yer scrawny ass over there right now... that girl with the red hair is waiting for you..."

After that, the black man turned and casually walked away, hands interlaced behind his head: Kylie, on the other hand, went into shock.

"W-what on earth...?! What was that all about?" the blonde girl squeaked, hair standing on end; her sapphire eyes were enormous and her entire body started shaking so badly that her knees could barely hold her up. "Mikayla... she's in a mansion on 895 Walker Road? What's that mean?!"

"Hi, Kylie!" Izzy happily shrieked, crashing into her from behind. "What'cha lookin' at? Is it a floating specter?"

"No... it's not," Kyalliara whispered, shivering violently; the black girl instantly paused. "We have to get to 895 Walker Road, Izzy... we have to go save Mickey!"

"Huh?" Izzy asked, smile being wiped clean in an instant. "What do you mean? Did you have a premonition or something?"

"N-no, nothing that miraculous," Kylie weakly explained, hugging herself with shaking limbs. "Some creepy black guy just walked up to me and told me to hurry over to a mansion since Mickey is there! He said that Mickey is waiting for me! We have to go to 895 Walker Road!"

"I... I've heard of that place," Izzy whispered, narrowing her eyes in dismay. "It's an old mansion that everyone at school says is abandoned. Weird."

"Tell me how to get there!" Kylie cried, whirling around and clutching her shoulders. "We have to find Mickey! It's totally crazy, I know, but... she's there! I _feel_ it!"

"Oh? Well, okay... let's go, then," the black girl stated simply, hefting her backpack and pushing her cat-eye glasses up her nose. "Follow me, blondie: if you really think she's there, and we actually do find her, we'll be heroes... but if she's not, and we end up late because of it, you're taking the blame. Okay?"

"Fine!" the blonde girl snapped, nodding until Izzy grabbed her wrist and dragged her down the street at a run. "Um... how far is it from here?"

"Surprisingly, not very far considering how big Los Santos is: the school is at the very top of the city if you're looking at a map, sort of," her friend explained, halting at the edge of the sidewalk and waiting for the cars to pass; then she continued moving down the street. "It's actually just around the block... students used to break in there and stay overnight for dares until someone went missing five years ago. After that, everyone was forced to stay away from it."

After she finished talking, she broke into a sprint and pulled Kylie with her. Neither girl noticed that their frantic pace had caught the attention of a certain tan-skinned boy with handsome green. He blinked and finished the last of his slurpie... then decided to follow them and took off as well.

"Hey, ladies!" Ryan called, making them turn. "Wait for me! If you're cutting class for once, you should hold up and let me come, too!"

"We're not doing that, you dope! We might know where Mickey is!" Izzy loudly informed him, continuing her pace with her hand on Kylie's wrist. "Let's check it out."

"Aw, come on," the boy sighed, shaking his head as his feet slowed. "You don't think we'll really find her in that old place, do you?"

"That's what we're trying to find out!" Izzy called, opening the front gate to the mansion. "Let's go see if Mickey is in here!"

Right around that moment, the blonde girl heard an odd noise..._ but what...?_

_Could it have been a voice...?_

_Was it wind chimes...? _

_Or dogs breathing...? _

_Running... feet...? _

_Red water... dripping out of a..._

_The world around her seemed to swirl... becoming transparent like an old movie._

_"What are you doing here...?"_ _someone whispered. "What are you doing here... what are... what... doing... here?"_

"_Kylie?" Mickey whispered, smiling at her as the world in front of her was erased. "Thank you."_

_Then... the world was gone._

_Blackness.__Infinite shadow stretching on endlessly._

_Then red... all over the floor._

_Floor..._

_Red Rivers..._

_The tub..._

"NO!" Kyalliara gasped, eyes snapping open wide. "M-Mickey...!"

After blinking the spots in her vision away, she realized that her head was ringing... and above her was her bedroom ceiling. Blinking in bleary confusion, the girl slowly sat up and rubbed her aching head, trying to figure out where she was and what she was doing. However, her head felt fuzzy... almost as though her brain had been coated with a blanket of cotton or elastic tape. Her thoughts didn't seem to make much sense to her anymore... how odd.

Slowly getting out of bed, the blonde girl tried to step forward and merely ended up tripping over Boomer, who 'woofed' in greeting.

Kylie landed limply, not having enough energy to actually prevent the fall.

However, she eventually got back up and slowly headed downstairs to take a shower, feeling somewhat sick and dizzy. Oddly enough, her mother was already in the kitchen making breakfast when she came out of the bathroom, which was extremely odd. She normally only made breakfast on Saturdays and Sundays.

"Good morning," Rose called, turning around and grinning when she saw the blonde girl weakly rubbing a towel against her hair. "You're up awfully late."

"Yeah," Kylie quietly murmured, giving her mother a soft expression. "I must be if you're making breakfast."

"Well, no biggie," the woman sighed, clucking her tongue as she fried some eggs. "Who in the world could have slept? Last night was awful."

For a moment, Kylie merely stared at her mom in confusion, trying to process what she'd said: it made no sense to her whatsoever.

"Huh?" the girl finally asked, looking at Rose with a blank expression. "What do you mean?"

"The police cars," her mom sighed, washing some of the dishes in the sink before glancing at her damp blonde hair. "You know, with their sirens blaring in the middle of the night? I didn't get any sleep, and even worse, I have to go to a magazine shoot later on today! I don't have bags under my eyes, do I?"

"Not that I can see," Kya tiredly mumbled, shaking her head. "At what time did this happen?"

Her mother paused and gawked at her in confusion.

"Don't tell me you didn't hear anything," she stated in disbelief, quirking an eyebrow. "You seriously didn't notice all the noise?"

"No," Kya murmured softly, shaking her head. "I didn't."

"I don't believe it!" the woman exclaimed, eyes widening as she set the table. "It must have been after two! It was so loud!"

"I didn't notice anything," the blonde girl weakly explained, shaking her head and pouring herself some milk. "Was it really?"

"Oh, my God, you have no idea," Rose scoffed, rolling her eyes in dismay. "If you need proof, you should go ask Mrs. McCarthy! She nearly had a heart attack."

"That's so strange," Kya finally muttered, touching her head in fuzzy perplexity; her mind felt completely clouded over for some strange reason. "You're usually the one who sleeps soundly between the two of us... I wonder why I didn't notice anything?"

"What I wanna know is what time you went to bed last night," her mother snickered, leaning forward with a smile. "Seriously, Ky, yesterday may have been a Friday... but that's no reason to stay up so late that you snooze until eleven in the morning, right?"

"Huh?" the girl asked, blinking in total confusion; her vacant expression was replaced with a deep frown. "Isn't today Friday?"

"No, yesterday was Friday," Rose stated slowly, straightening up and staring at her daughter in concern. "Honey, you're looking... pale. I didn't notice it until now, but are you feeling all right? You look rather ill... what time did you go to sleep last night?"

"Last night?" Kylie asked, furrowing her brows in thought. "I... I don't remember... my brain feels weird and... well, it's kinda fuzzy for some reason."

For a moment, the woman merely stared at her... but then she shook her head and gave the blonde a warning expression.

"You didn't... accept anything from a stranger, did you?" Rose asked seriously, making her daughter blink. "You need to be careful: Los Santos is a very corrupt city, hon, so if someone gave you something... even if it's a snack or a piece of candy... don't take it. They could have put drugs in it."

"Drugs?" Kylie asked, blinking again before putting her head in her hands. "I didn't do anything like that... did I? I don't remember anything from yesterday... not even going to school. It's like there's a gap in my memory. When I woke up, I thought today was Friday... where did my real Friday go off to?"

"You should get some rest," Rose sighed, giving her a worried expression. "Come on, let's get you upstairs... you really do look ill. You're white as a sheet."

"My chest hurts," Kya suddenly droned, blinking in dismayed confusion when the pain unexpectedly bloomed on her body. "Ow... ow, ow, OW! OWWWW!"

"Baby, what's wrong?!" Rose stammered, watching with enormous eyes as the blonde girl's legs buckled; the fog around her mind slowly began to ease up, removing a numbness she hadn't even realized was present. No wonder she'd tripped and fallen so many times... she hadn't been able to feel her legs. "Kyalliara, what on earth is wrong?! Tell me, honey! What's happening to you?! Where does it hurt!"

"My whole body hurts!" the girl wailed, bursting into tears. "OW! Why am I hurting so much?! Why did the fuzziness leave?! It hurts! It hurts! IT HUUURTS!"

When her mother jerkily began unbuttoned her daughter's pajama shirt and tore it open, her sapphire eyes widened and she let out a horrified shriek before jolting backwards. The woman instantly covered her mouth and shivered violently, eyes round with mortification behind her half-moon glasses. Right there, on the blonde girl's upper torso... was bloodied gauze, stitches... and several potentially-fatal injuries that had been dressed.

"Oh, my god..." Rose whimpered, crawling forward and touching her child's chest. "Oh, God... Kya, who did this to you?! What happened to you?! BABY!"

"I-I don't remember!" the girl squeaked, clutching her head in terror. "I don't remember a thing! The fuzziness is gone, but I can't remember anything!"

"How am I supposed to believe that?!" the actress shrieked, flailing her arms. "Honey, someone STABBED YOU! REPEATEDLY! What happened?!"

"I DON'T KNOW, MOMMY!" Kyalliara wailed, bursting into tears all over again. "I can't remember! I can't remember anything! Why can't I remember?!"

"I'm calling an ambulance," Rose stammered, scrabbling to her feet and bolting for the phone. "Stay put: you're hurt, and you need a doctor."

Kylie didn't know what was going on... but one thing was for certain: it wasn't good at all, whatever the hell it was.


	4. Chapter 3: It Begins

**Chapter Three: It Begins  
**

"You want me to _what_?!" Rose cried, goggling at her daughter. "Hang on, hon! That's not happening!"

"Please, Mom!" the blonde girl shouted back; today was Monday, Kya's last day at the hospital, but she'd just discovered that her own mother had been planning on telling the Principle that she'd been attacked by an unknown assailant. "If someone asks why I wasn't at school, just tell them I was sick!"

"Explain why I should," the woman retorted, folding her arms. "If you want me to lie for you, you'll have to give me a good reason."

"I have three, actually," Kylie instantly snapped, giving her mother a serious expression. "First of all, you're a famous actress: it wouldn't be smart to broadcast that I, your daughter, was attacked to anyone, ESPECIALLY my school principle: she's the kind of woman who would send that info to the media. Secondly, it would worry the hell out of my new friends to hear about that, and third of all… I can't even remember what really _happened_ to me that day."

"Okay, I stand corrected: that's a very logical way of putting it, especially since I don't want EVERYONE to know what happened to you," Rose sighed in defeat, shaking her head. "Plus, you might get a chance to remember something about that day if you avoid any further stress… I honestly want to put the man who hurt you behind bars. I just hope you understand what you're getting yourself into... after all, you've been absent for an entire week."

"I know," Kylie retorted, determined expression not faltering. "Still, my decision won't change: I think it would be better not to tell anyone that I got hurt."

"I don't know about this… your father would slaughter me if he knew about it," Rose sighed, but after seeing the scowl on her daughter's face, she couldn't turn down the request. "Okay, fine, I'll keep it a secret if you'll just stop _frowning _like that! Are you happy? I'll tell everyone you had a bad case of the flu!"

"Thank you, Mom!" Kylie sighed in relief. "I really need this."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Rose muttered, leading the girl through the hospital halls and checking her out of the patient registry at the front desk. The wounds on the blonde's upper torso ached whenever she moved her arms, but she was almost back on her feet: after receiving some professional care from Los Santos Hospital, it was no wonder. When Kylie and her mother finally left the hospital, she sighed and looked up at the sky.

It was five in the morning: school was going to start within an hour, and she was going to make sure she was there.

"Don't worry, Mom," Kylie murmured, giving her mother a soft smile. "I'm going to be just fine, trust me."

"If you hadn't noticed, you're the farthest thing from fine right now," Rose retorted, helping the girl climb into the taxi she'd halted. "It's only because you promised to be careful that I'm even allowing this, all right? Now, let's get you home so you can change into your uniform."

"That must mean you trust me more than Dad ever did," Kylie snorted, smiling at the woman when she climbed in beside her. "That makes me feel good."

"We'll be home in about five minutes," Rose gently assured her. "It's really close to the hospital."

Kylie nodded mutely and watched as the brightening scenery flashed past the window.

Eventually, the taxi pulled up in front of their house and both of them got out: her mother instantly went inside and decided to crash for a little while longer. She'd gotten up early when Kylie had called her with the news that she could come home. Feeling extremely nervous, the blonde girl slowly headed inside and changed into her school uniform, being exceedingly careful not to bump the injuries on her body.

They hurt terribly whenever they were touched, gently or not: she'd need to be extremely cautious after she got to school.

After she was dressed, Kya grabbed her school bag and put everything she needed inside it: once that was finished, she brushed her hair and went downstairs to wait for the school bus. She stood in the early morning light, eyes closed and expression tired; a salty ocean breeze pulled on her pleated skirt and messed with her hair. Then the bus arrived, doors opening with a whoosh: the driver glanced at her and raised his eyebrows for a moment.

Kya silently stepped onto it and made her way down the aisle, heading towards the empty seat located all the way in the far back: several students stared at her in surprise, since she'd been absent for a week, but then they went back to their sleepy early morning chatter. The blonde girl groaned and appreciatively sat down, closing her eyes... then she opened them again and started looking at the California scenery like she always did.

The sunrises here were absolutely beautiful.

When the bus stopped again, it was at Ryan's house: she didn't even notice it when he got on, busy as she was staring at the brightening sky.

"Yo! Kylie, you're okay!" the boy shouted in a cheerful voice, eyes widening in delight; students turned to stare when the blonde girl twitched and looked up at him in surprise. She watched as jogged down the aisle towards her, but when he sat down, she gave him a nod in greeting and looked out the window again with a weak-sounding sigh. "Man, when you didn't show up for school, everyone really started freaking out! We thought you'd disappeared, too!"

"I'm here," the blonde girl whispered quietly, making him frown in concern. "I'm not missing..."

"Are you alright?" he asked, gently brushing her hair aside and looking at something on her neck with furrowed brows. "You... you've got a... um..."

"What?" Kylie asked, turning her head and looking at him in confusion. "What is it?"

"There's a weird... scratch... on your neck," the boy stated slowly, slowly lifting his hand and touching the side of his own neck. "It feels the same... weird."

"Huh?" the blonde girl asked, lifting her hand and touching the side of her throat; she twitched when she felt a lump under her skin. "What the heck?!"

"I don't know," Ryan snorted, giving her a grin. "I thought I'd gotten cut when I was wrestling last week... but maybe we got stung by some kind of bug. After all, the scratches aren't exactly in the same spot, even though they do look exactly alike. Don't worry about it."

"Even if you say 'don't worry' that doesn't really change my feelings," the girl mumbled, rubbing her neck with a shiver before looking out the window. "I didn't even notice this until you said something. It really is a weird coincidence, though... huh?"

The girl twitched when the bus started passing through the school gates, because against the brick wall... was a lanky black man.

The moment she saw him, he turned to look at the bus... and smiled.

Kylie blinked and drew back as a stab of fear swept through her gut, then she lowered her eyes and turned away from the window: she didn't like the feeling the sight of that man had given her. It felt almost as though she'd seen him somewhere before... and to her, it didn't make sense. When the bus finally stopped behind the other buses, Kyalliara got off like everyone else... but when she turned around and looked through the gates, the black man was gone.

"Creepy," she muttered, wincing when a small pain went through her forehead. "Really, _really_ creepy. Why does he scare me so much?"

By the time she'd made it to the locker room and had put her things away, her head was aching again: ever since she'd woken up in her bedroom with the clumsily-dressed stab wounds, she'd gotten extreme migraines that wouldn't seem to go away. At first, she'd wondered if it was because she'd hurt her head somewhere, but the doctor had told her it was most likely a result of losing the memories concerning what had happened that Friday.

She pondered it all the way into the locker room.

_Why don't I remember what happened that day? _the blonde girl wondered, shaking her head in confusion as she twirled the dial lock. _I just can't seem to get anything to come back... there's not even a hint of it, or the sensation of it being on the tip of my tongue. That whole day... it__'s just... gone.  
_

After she'd put her things away and closed her locker, a wave of dizziness overwhelmed her and she weakly pressed her head against it: her legs nearly buckled a few moments later, so she weakly sank down on the bench resting just behind her and pressed a hand against her eyes. This type of dizziness usually went hand in hand with the migraines, so she'd pretty much gotten used to them... but now that she was walking around again, she hadn't really considered how being dizzy would affect her. What would happen if she had another dizzy fit in the hallway and couldn't continue walking?

What if she fainted in front of someone?

No... she couldn't let that happen, so she'd have to be vigilant.

"Good morning," a voice quietly greeted. "Haven't seen you in a while."

"Huh?" Kylie weakly asked, lifting her sapphire eyes; she winced when they landed upon Penelope Fernaldis. "Oh... good Morning, Penny."

Kylie was already preparing herself to get in trouble since it was _this_ girl who'd caught her: she'd missed an entire week of school AND was tardy on her first day back since the bell had rung the moment she'd limped into the locker room. Since Penny had caught her, she pretty much had no excuse to come up with: after all, she was the leader of CCS, and even if they didn't look like it, the CCS girls pretty much enforced the rules at Ulsa Private High. Sadly, they were also the same girls who'd been bullying her since the moment she'd stood up to them on her first day.

They were a high-class version of a normal student council.

When Kylie swayed a little and once again put a hand to her head... Penny's light hazel eyes flickered with a little bit of concern

"What's the matter?" she asked, blonde brows furrowing in concern; she must have re-dyed her hair at some point, because her auburn roots were no longer showing through, her tresses was a much more natural-looking shade of blonde, and her eyebrows matched the color of her hair. "Are you okay?"

"I'm not feeling very well," Kylie admitted, swallowing the lump in her throat; then she slowly lowered her hands. "I'm sorry. For being late, I mean..."

"You might as well rest a bit," Penelope quietly sighed, looking at her with a somewhat softer expression; the taller girl stepped forward and sat down beside Kylie, putting an arm around her slender shoulder. Her comforting actions, needless to say, startled the blonde girl more than she wanted to admit: ever since she'd told them off, Penny's posse had done nothing but harass her. The fact that their leader was being nice felt kind of... weird. "I'll stay right here, okay?"

"Yeah," Kylie croaked, nodding a bit before she winced and touched her aching chest. "Thanks..."

"Are you really not feeling well?" Penny asked, hazel eyes full of distress. "Do you want me to get the nurse? Or... is it something more serious?"

"I... I'm fine," Kylie admitted, giving her a confused expression. "Can I ask you something?"

"Sure, anything," the curly-haired girl confirmed, giving her a nod. "What is it?"

"Why are you being so nice to me?" Kyalliara hesitantly inquired, shivering a little under Penny's touch. "I thought you and your friends hated me."

"Well, personally, I don't really mind you as much as they do," Penelope chuckled, letting go of her shoulders and tilting her head back with a somewhat thoughtful expression. "To be honest, I acted kind of rudely since I really did think your hair was dyed: after all, the way I saw it... there was just no possible way that someone could have such a perfect hair color. Plus, you were right about _our_ dyes: they really did look horrid. I wouldn't have gone along with it if my best friend, Ashley, hadn't asked us all to dye our hair the same color. Sadly, they still haven't gotten over the sting of what you said about us. Me, on the other hand... well, I almost laughed out loud since I actually said the same thing the first time I saw myself in a mirror. It was pretty funny."

"Really?" Kylie sighed, smiling a little despite herself. "Could you tell them I said I'm sorry? Normally I'm not that blunt when it comes to talking... but, um... the fact that I was being called out over my hair color really stung. I've never dyed my hair, or even worn make-up... in fact, I don't even know how to put it _on._ The one time I actually did my own make-up, I ended up looking like a clown... and, er, I was also about six years old."

"Wow, really?" Penny asked, blinking in total shock. "No way! You really don't know how to put on make-up?"

"Um, no," Kylie confirmed, shaking her head in embarrassment; she winced and clutched her head when a flash of pain went through it. "Ow..."

"Hey... are you really all right?" Penelope inquired, frowning at the girl with a worried expression. "You were gone all week, and since your mother didn't call the school, everyone here was worried that someone may have kidnapped you, as well. It had everyone on edge, you know..."

"Really?" Kylie asked, blinking in shock. "I didn't know."

"Well, now you do," Penny stated seriously, giving her a firm expression. "Ryan Harris and Izzy Roden missed school on Friday _and_ Monday... when they showed up on Tuesday, I confronted them, but they didn't have any idea where you were. They said they hadn't seen you at all."

"I don't remember seeing them, either," Kylie muttered, closing her eyes as she thought about it. "Still... feel free to give me a ticket for being late."

"Oh... don't worry about that," Penny scoffed, flapping a dismissive hand. "I'll let you off this time since I can tell that you're seriously not feeling well. I'm part of the CCS, remember? We're the ones who make the rules... we'll keep this just between us, all right?"

"Okay," Kylie whispered, shaking her head in grateful confusion. "Thank you."

"Do you think you can go to class?" the CCS leader inquired, looking at her with a friendly countenance.

"Yeah," Kyalliara confirmed, slowly wobbling to her feet and swallowing hard. "I... I can go. I'm all right... sort of."

"Well, then... just, make sure you get there on time, okay?" Penny cautioned, giving her a small smile. "Believe it or not, I kind of admire you: you're the first girl I've ever seen who truly acted like a model student. You never break the rules, you never gossip, and you're never mean: even when you stood up to me, the words that came out of your mouth could have been considered exceedingly polite. In a city like Los Santos... I've gotten used to people cussing at me."

With that, she walked out of the locker room... but not before giving her a small, friendly wave.

After a moment of staring at the empty doorway, Kylie mustered up the strength to gather her books and headed off down the hall. She was in serious shock about what had just happened... extreme shock. Penelope hadn't turned her in? What was all that about? And why was she acting so friendly with her all of a sudden? Nothing seemed to make sense to the blonde girl anymore... enemies weren't enemies, friends were going missing... what was going on?

However... when she turned around the corner and headed down the hall towards her classroom, she saw something that made her halt.

Two police officers were standing in front of the door and talking to her crying homeroom teacher: the woman had lifted her glasses to press a handkerchief against her eyes and hide it... but Kylie could tell that she was really crying. Her feet stopped walking and she stared, arms tightening around her books when one of the officers set a comforting hand on her shoulder and murmured something inaudible; the other glanced at the frozen blonde girl.

Her eyes widened when she saw the tears in his eyes.

Then, a few minutes later, one of the officers pulled a radio off his belt and listened; he instantly nudged his partner and the two of them left at a run. Kylie hurried down the hall and passed her teacher when she ran in the direction of the principle's office; however, the moment she sat down at her desk, two of the students she was familiar with turned to speak with her: a skinny girl with a bob-cut named Roxy, and a... 'plump' girl with bushy hair and freckles named Molly.

"Did you see those cops?" Roxy asked, ruffling her hair with large eyes. "Miss Carrie totally started crying and left class! I wonder what's going on?!"

"Maybe something bad happened," Molly whispered, leaning towards the two girls. "If there were cops, maybe she got busted for throwing drugs around or something... er, Katie, you just came in, right? What was she talking about with them?"

"My name is Kylie, and I didn't exactly hear what it was about," the blonde girl murmured, swallowing hard. "I was too far away."

"Aw, that's too bad," Molly muttered, shaking her head and causing her curls to bounce. "I'd kill to know what's going on!"

However, Molly soon got her wish: two minutes after she said it, all of the teachers, in every classroom, were called to the main office. The students were told over the intercom to wait in their seats until the instructors returned... and ten minutes later, Miss Carrie came back into the room with puffy eyes and red cheeks. Every single student stared with confused faces when she walked over to her desk and sat down on top of it, pressing a hand against her head.

"I have very sad news for all of you today," the woman choked out, not looking up at her students. "One of the two students from our school who recently went missing, Mikayla Reed... was found this morning. They said she was found dead up in the middle of the desert... away from the suburbs."

It was as though someone had dropped a bomb: everyone in the classroom wanted to say something, anything, but silence prevailed. For a moment, complete stillness fell over the classroom and tension quickly moved in to fill the void; that one moment, which—in reality—lasted but a few seconds, seemed to stretch on and on for hours. Kylie's mind went completely blank: she, for a few blissful moments, became completely incapable of truly processing the depth of her loss. Everything that was going on around her seemed to grow more distant with each passing second; her glittering blue eyes remained fixed on her teacher, who turned her head away and refused to look at her students.

That's when it hit her, and the girl's pupils dilated.

suddenly, she felt as though she were in the middle of a nightmare, unable to awaken.

Death was permanent... there was no coming back from it.

Mikayla Reed... her best friend... she was gone.

Forever.

Her lower lip trembled and her hands shook involuntarily as her heart sank into the pit of her stomach: she felt as though the icy hands of death were choking the life out of her; she struggled to catch her breath, feeling the panic strangling her. When she closed her eyes in an attempt to assuage her feelings, all she could see in her mind's eye was Mickey. She saw the lanky girl's smile, heard all the times she'd laughed, felt the way she'd always hugged her... she thought of her gentle personality—the way she could be so lighthearted and cheery, yet so strong and steadfast when a situation required it. She thought of the gentle look the redhead had gotten sometimes... how her jade green eyes could speak volumes even when she said nothing at all.

She thought of how those eyes had provided her reassurance when the world had once seemed cold and uncertain.

Mickey's light had been extinguished before it could even begin to glow... and the world, which had always seemed hollow to Kylie, was now only a shell of what she knew; somehow, even though the sun would surely rise the next day, the blonde felt as though her world had been cast into darkness.

It was an endless night from which there would never be a dawn.

She slowly lifted her shaking hands and clutched her hair with her trembling fingers, blue eyes large.

The room was still dead silent when the tears started spilling down her cheeks, and when she finally began to cry, she tried to hide it... she really did, honestly, but the anguish still tore free of her mouth and filled the air: everyone turned to look at her when she pressed her hands against her hair and started sobbing in a breathless manner. Her tears were almost completely silent since she felt winded: it was as though she'd been punched clean in the stomach.

Even though she wanted to scream from the pain tearing her insides apart, she was unable to because the pain _itself_ was _crushing_ her.

"Mickey!" she finally sobbed, completely breaking down and bursting into tears. "Mickey! Mickey! MICKEY! MICKEEEEY! UWAAAAAAAAHAHAAAAA! MICKEEEEEY!"

"School is closing down for the day," Miss Carrie continued, finally looking up at her students. "I would like us all to take a moment of silence for Mikayla... then line up in single file and follow your classmates to the front gates. Miss Whatley... please... stop crying."

"Mickey!" the girl wailed again, futilely trying to rub away the tears streaming from her eyes with shaking arms. "Mickey! Mickey! No... no... no! NO!"

She couldn't stop crying, not even when her teacher glared half-heartedly.

After a moment, the blonde girl stood up and ran out of the room, tearing down the hallway at top speed and crying her eyes out. On her way around the corner, she ran right past Penny... who had been on her way to the offices. Kylie's eyes were so full of tears that she didn't even see the girl, nor did she notice the extremely startled expression the artificial blonde gave her. Kylie didn't see anything at all, really: her eyes were blurry, and she ran all the way outside before falling to her knees and bursting into a fit of hysterical wailing.

Her discordant sobs echoed throughout the campus and were punctuated with soft thuds as she beat her clenched fists against the grass.

"MICKEY!" the girl wailed, curling up and hugging herself. "Mickey! Please! Come back home! Please, come back!"

However, nothing could bring her back... after all, there wasn't a cure for death.

She was gone.

Blindly getting to her feet, the girl started running again, not even realizing that Penny was following her: the curly-haired blond was watching her from behind the corner of the nearest building, looking thoroughly confused about why she was crying. Since she herself hadn't actually been in her own class when the news was given, she didn't know that everyone was lining up to get on the buses that would take them home. Kylie ran into the woods that stretched out just behind the school, ignoring the pain from the wounds on her chest: she ran for what felt like hours.

When she finally couldn't run anymore, she pressed herself against a tree and slid to the ground.

And curled up into a ball...

And cried.

She sat there for hours, even after she'd stopped crying: her blue eyes had become empty and now she simply sat staring off into space with tears still running down her cheeks: she didn't have the energy to vocalize her pain any longer, so it merely came out like this. By the time she finally stood up, the beautiful glow of a glorious California sunset was already tinging the sky with a brilliant conflagration of pink, red, and gold.

Futilely rubbing her streaming eyes, the blonde girl slowly made her way out of the woods and headed off school grounds, walking down the sidewalks in the direction of her house. She had left her things inside the building, so it was far too late to go and get them, but she didn't care: she was still in shock. Kylie walked down the big city streets, crying her eyes out. She didn't even notice how people everywhere halted what they were doing in order to stare at her. Joggers stopped jogging and blinked at her, people talking on their cells paused their conversations to stare, men doing yoga on the plush grass turned to gawk... and yet, oddly enough, all of them were black.

Without even realizing it, she was passing through a part of San Andreas that was dangerous for white people to be walking in.

"Yo, lil' blondie!" someone finally shouted, making her look up with watery eyes. "What you doin' in our hood?"

"H-huh?" Kylie sniffed, looking around in confusion; she hadn't even realized she'd missed her turn by one street. "I think I made a wrong turn... I wasn't really paying attention to where I was going. I apologize..."

"Why you cryin', lil' girl?" an old black lady smoking a cigarette on a set of apartment steps inquired, quirking a wrinkled eyebrow at her. "Darlin', I haven't seen anyone cry like that since mah baby's funeral six years ago. And that cryin' person was his little five-year-old brotha'."

"Oh, um..." Kylie sniffled, face screwing up; she almost broke down again right there. "I found out this morning that my best friend is... is... dead..."

"Oh," the black woman deadpanned, face going blank; she instantly glared at a few of the men who were whispering in hushed tones with each other and waved the blonde girl over. Kylie, ever oblivious to what was going on around her, instantly walked over to the woman; she patted the steps beside her and waited until the girl sat down. "Y'know, honey, this city's dangerous for girl's like you. Ya can't just go walkin' wherever you want, even if it's on accident. I think it would be smart if you run along and hurry home, okay? You seem like a sweet lil' thing, so that's the best advice I can give ya."

"Yes, Ma'am," Kylie sniffled, nodding a few times before closing her eyes to stop the flood of tears. "Thank you..."

"Be careful now," the woman sighed, swatting her backside in an effort to get her moving once she stood up. "Don't you go missin' yo' street again."

"I-I won't!" the girl squeaked, hands clamped to her butt; she had been severely startled by the old woman's actions.

Still she hurried back down the way she'd come and started off for home... but then, she passed by the place where she and Mickey had exchanged diaries. Her feet instantly slowed and she stared at the spot, feeling more than a little empty... she could still see that memory. Whenever she saw this place, it was almost as if their shadows were trapped together in that moment for eternity. She could still see it... when she closed her eyes, she was there.

_"I have a new boyfriend!" Mickey gushed, leaning over the river railing with sparkling green eyes. "He is SO. CUTE!"_

_"Really?" Kylie asked, eyes widening in delight. "Who is it?"_

_"You already know who! I mean come on, it's Jacob!" the taller girl laughed, clapping her hands when the blonde gasped. "I wanted you to be the first to know! I was just hanging out at the Del Perro amusement park by myself... and he came and talked to me. Then we went on the Ferris Wheel together! It was just us on the whole thing... going round and around and around... hee! You should have seen it! He was so cute! He confessed to me, and then he... he actually... he kissed me!"_

_"Oh, wow!" Kylie squealed, jumping up and down and hugging her best friend. "Mickey, I'm so happy for you!"_

However, when Kylie opened her eyes again, she was still alone.

Mickey was really gone.

She lowered her head and stared at the ground... feeling her heart cracking.

Waiting for it to break.

However... the first piece never fell, because a sharp pain that originated in her neck swept throughout her body like lightning.

The girl squealed and locked up with trembling muscles when she was shocked from the inside out: then she felt strange... as though something in her neck was gently pulling her forward, tugging her in a specific direction. The girl slowly began to follow it, swallowing as she was led through San Andreas and Los Santos towards the beach. The pulling became stronger the further she went... and almost like a mindless zombie, Kya followed the sensation even though it was starting to get dark.

By the time the tugging was almost directly beneath her feet, it was past midnight and she was standing in a deserted park located about half a mile away from the ocean. However, when she heard a noise and looked up, she twitched in surprise: right there in front of her, walking in a similarly aimless manner, was Ryan Harris. He whirled around when she let out a gasp, then stared at her with startled jade green eyes.

"Kyalliara?" he asked, staring at her uniform and blonde hair with a wary expression. "Is that you?"

"What are you doing here?" Kylie asked, staring at him with a stunned expression. "It's really, _really_ late, Ryan."

"I've got an idea," the boy defensively snorted, eyes flashing with caution. "Why don't you mind your own business!"

"I knew it! You were pulled here, too, weren't you?" the girl exclaimed, eyes widening in shock. "There's this weird feeling in my neck... it led me here."

"You're telling me you feel it, too?" Ryan deadpanned, furrowing his brows as he touched his own neck. "It's been really bothering me... my neck, I mean."

"Um... I don't know..." Kylie admitted, shaking her head in dismay. "I was planning on going home when my neck started... well, hurting... but... even though the tug got stronger the closer I came, the _pain_ went away when after started moving in this direction. It felt like a constant electric shock."

"No way... you've gotta be kidding me," a familiar voice deadpanned; Kylie squeaked and whirled to find Izzy standing directly behind her with extreme confusion plastered all over her face. She was wearing an off-the-shoulder _Aeris_ shirt and a purse was slung over her shoulder, but she looked extremely adorable despite her attire. "So, _everyone's_ been having this weird twitchy feeling in the side of their neck? A feeling that just so happened to get all three of us together in one spot? This is not normal, even as far as being psychic goes! Were we... like... bitten by vampires or something?"

"I don't think that's possible!" Kylie retorted, instantly slapping a hand against her neck with alarmed blue eyes. "Vampires aren't real, right?"

"I've seen ghosts AND aliens while living in Los Santos," Izzy stated seriously, giving the blonde a cold expression that made her freeze. "Trust me, after witnessing something like _that,_ I would NOT be surprised to see something as original as vampires running around. Just look at the Children of the Mountain, for starters: they've got a creepy little cult thing going on behind the Yoga Guru Mumbo Jumbo, no matter how hard they wanna deny it."

"Yo, this is freaking me out," Ryan snapped, hugging himself and looking around with uncertain green eyes. "What the hell is going on?"

"I don't know," Kylie mumbled, shaking her head. "This is too creepy."

"Um... this is gonna sound weird," Izzy finally sighed, pushing her glasses up her nose, "but do either of you... remember what happened last Friday?"

Ryan went rigid at the same time that Kylie twitched and hunched up her shoulders with enormous eyes.

"What are you talking about?!" Ryan asked, looking at her without blinking. "What do you mean?"

"Do you?" Izzy demanded, furrowing her brows. "Just answer the question."

"Okay, something's wrong, here!" Kylie immediately whimpered, hunching her shoulders with a pale face; she looked up at her two friends, knees shaking a little despite her desire to remain calm. "W-we should get out of here! Okay? Let's get out of here! Something's wrong: we should go!"

"Maybe you're right," Ryan stated quietly, rubbing his neck with a wince. "For now, at least."

"Wait," Izzy whispered, whirling around with startled eyes when the faint sound of approaching footsteps split the air. "Um... I think someone's coming."

"From an alley?!" Ryan hissed, eyes widening in angry disbelief. "That's even _more_ of a reason to get out of here! Crazy people and killers hide in alleys!"

"Oh, my God..." Kylie whimpered, shoulders tensing up. "What if it's the same guy... w-who killed..."

"Don't say it," Izzy whispered. "We don't know if she _was_ killed, remember? The cops couldn't tell if it was a suicide or a murder!"

"How was I supposed to know?!" Kylie quietly squealed, flailing her arms. "I was crying my eyes out when everyone was being told all that stuff, you know!"

However, all three teenagers froze when a lanky black man walked out of the shadows with another, much stockier black man at his side.

"Yo, kiddies, what up?" the tall man called, flashing them a lanky grin and a disarming wave. "I see you all made it without dyin'... good. First test, complete."

"Huh...?" Kylie murmured, furrowing her brows when she realized that she'd seen him somewhere before. She narrowed her eyes in thought, trying to remember why he looked familiar, but she twitched when she remembered the black man that had been in front of the school. With the news of Mickey's death, she had completely forgotten about him. She oimmediately sidled closer to Izzy and grasped the taller black girl's hand, interlacing her slender fingers with her friend's. She was absolutely terrified of both black men... even though she didn't know why.

"I've seen him before," Izzy whispered in a tight voice, making the blonde girl twitch. "I saw him outside my house last week... he was just standing there..."

"Same here," Ryan stated in a hoarse voice, eyes wary and muscles rigid. "I've seen both of them. Twice."

"That's right: we've been keepin' an eye on you since my bud and I are yo' new teachers," the black man cheerfully stated, popping a cigarette into his mouth and flicking his lighter open. "Let's talk about last Friday, shall we? Do you lil' fucks remember? If you don't, that's probably a good thing... last Friday, you kids got mixed up in Gang shit. Now, because I had to pay a lot of fucking bills to keep yo' asses alive, you're gonna be working for me from now on."

"Like hell!" Ryan roared, bristling all over with enormous green eyes. "What makes you think any of us would agree to that?!"

"Oh, so that's how it is?" the black man snorted, quirking an eyebrow; he slowly pulled a small black thing out of his jacket and waved it with a nasty grin, making all three teens pause in confusion. "So... you sayin' you don' care if I blow yo' asses to Mars?"

"W-w-w-what do you mean?" Kylie stammered, blue eyes becoming unbelievably large. "B-blow us up?! How?!"

"You and yo' friends got mini-bombs embedded in yo' necks, sugarpie," the man chuckled, making all three teenagers turn bone white with horror; three hands simultaneously clapped in the same spot, each with trembling fingers. "With one push of a button, I can blow yo' heads off. Now calm the fuck down and listen to what I have to say. I ain't gonna say it again: follow me."

Kylie and her friends stood there, not knowing what to do, until the man waved the detonator again. They instantly hurried after the two men, knees barely holding them up. The blonde girl felt as though she were being marched to her own execution: she was utterly terrified. However, when they finally made it to a parking lot that was surrounded by enormous fences, the black man finally stopped and adjusted his blue zip-up sweatshirt.

"What's going on?" Kylie whimpered, looking around with fearful eyes. "Why are we here?"

The black man grinned and lifted his hand, pointing at a twitching man that was walking towards them from the opposite end of the parking lot.

"Do you see that?" their enemy sneered, glancing at their frightened eyes. "That man over there... the one walking towards us?"

"Yeah, so what?" Izzy asked in a surprisingly calm voice. "Isn't he just another typical crackhead?"

"Yep, but he's doped up on PCP, Speed, and several other drugs that turned him crazy," the black man nastily chuckled, giving them all a grin that didn't touch his eyes. "He's already murdered seventeen people tonight... and you three... are going to kill him. With your bare hands."

The startled teens stepped back when the black man walked away, leaving them behind and waving the detonator in a threatening manner. Kylie gasped when the twitching man snarled like a wild animal and broke into run, charging straight at them. The blonde girl clamped onto Izzy's arm when the drug-addled human leapt clean onto the roof of a car and sprang at them with a savage roar: all three teenagers, even Ryan, screamed at the top of their lungs

"NOOOOOOO!" Kylie screeched, squeezing her eyes shut. "SOMEONE, HELP US!

However, nobody could hear them... and that's how Kylie found herself enduring an entire night of living hell.


	5. Chapter 4: Nightmare in Del Perro Plaza

**Chapter Four: The Nightmare in Del Perro Plaza**

Kylie's breath came in short little pants as she kept herself pressed against one of the many vehicles spread out across the fence-enclosed parking lot. Izzy and Ryan had bolted in different directions after the first initial chase, so the blonde girl had found herself alone. She could see Izzy hiding behind a dumpster across the parking lot, and she knew the black girl could see her... but neither of them could see Ryan. Izzy was currently trying to call for help on her cellphone.

"This is bullshit! Where's the signal?!" Izzy jerkily hissed, repeatedly dialing 911. "How the hell are we not in range?! We're in the middle of a city!"

After a few moments of watching her attempt to get service on her phone, the smaller girl made a decision.

Ignoring the shakiness in her limbs, Kylie slowly crawled to all fours and sat up on her knees, being careful to keep her head down.

"Ryan?" Kylie quietly hissed out, trying not to speak too loud; her heart was pounding a mile a minute. "Ryan?! Ryan, where are you?!"

However, when Izzy looked up and saw what she was doing, she twitched and her eyes widened.

"Bitch, are you crazy?!" she loudly hissed, flailing her arm to get the blonde's attention. "Get the fuck down!"

"Where's Ryan?!" the blonde girl whimpered back, sinking down and pressing her back against the side of the car. "Izzy, what are we gonna do?!"

"I don't know!" the black girl retorted, shivering violently and rubbing her neck. "I have no idea how we're gonna get out of this!"

The crazy man who'd attacked them was currently looking for signs of them, shouting nonsensical threats and twitchy screeches about crocodiles coming out of the sewers in an attempt to eat his manhood. His deranged lunacy had both girls shivering violently and fighting not to cry... but then, out of nowhere, his insane mutterings came to a halt. Kylie blinked and looked at Izzy, who merely shrugged and shivered yet again.

Then there was a thud, and Ryan's voice let out a startled shout.

"Izzy, MOVE!" the tan-skinned boy yelped, making Kylie jump to her feet; her eyes widened when the crazy man leapt clean onto the dumpster and lunged at her friend with a savage roar. The black girl let out a screech that rang up and down the empty streets as she scrambled out of the way; when she scrabbled to her feet and bolted down the parking lot with the crackhead right behind her, Ryan ran over to a nearby SUV and kicked the driver-side mirror. "RUN, IZZY!"

"RUN!" Kylie shrieked, clamping her hands against her cheeks when Ryan jerked the mirror clean out of the car and sprinted after the madman, who was leaping from car to car like some kind of superhuman freak. Izzy's screaming continued to echo all around, but when the crackhead attempted to lunge at her from the side, Ryan swung the mirror and hit the man clean in the face. Izzy stumbled backwards, then took off with another terrified screech.

"Get back, bitch!" Ryan snarled, hefting the mirror with a fierce expression in his eyes; the crackhead laughed hysterically and charged forward like a spider on all fours, which thoroughly frightened the boy out of his brave act. "Holy, shit! This is not happening!"

"Ryan!" Kylie wailed, watching as he sprinted back down the parking lot towards her. "Ryan, get away from him!"

"RUN!" the black-haired boy barked, green eyes frantic as he sped past; the empowered drug-addict followed not long after. "GET OUT OF HERE!"

Just as she was about to chase after him, a hand grabbed her from behind and frantic sobbing met her ears: Kylie whirled around and was met with the sight of Izzy hugging her purse with shaking arms, eyes squeezed shut and tears streaming down her face. The moment the blonde girl clutched her hand, the black girl's knees buckled and she plopped onto the cement. Kylie instantly knelt down and tried to pull her up, but Izzy refused to comply.

It was only then that she realized that her friend's sobs were the only thing she could hear.

"Izzy, come on!" Kylie finally whispered, frantically tugging on the black girl's arm. "Please, stop it! You have to get up! Come on!"

"I can't... stand up!" the black girl choked out, hyperventilating as she cried. "My legs... I'm so scared..."

"Izzy..." Kyalliara whined, looking close to tears herself. "Please!"

"Kylie?!" a male voice suddenly bellowed, making the blonde girl look up; she instantly glanced around, looking for the source. "KYLIE! KYLIE!"

"Who's... calling me?" Kya asked, glancing around even when Izzy clutched her arms. "Izzy, do you hear that?!"

"Please," the black girl whimpered, shaking all over. "Stay with me... don't leave me here..."

"KYALLIARAAAAA!" Ryan abruptly cried, sounding stricken with terror. "MOVE!"

Before she could react, the druggie leapt over the top of the car and smashed into her upper torso; Kylie screeched and started flailing around when the maniac grabbed her shoulders and pinned her down on her back, kicking her legs and pushing at the concrete with her feet in an attempt to buck him off of her. Izzy screamed and struggled to crawl over to the open area.

"The crocs are coming out of the toilet!" the psychopath laughed, squeezing her shoulders with small, maniacal eyes that burned into hers. "The crocks wanna eat my cock! I can't let them eat my cock! I want my cock! I have to kill the crocs... have to kill... before they... bite... my dick off... bite! BITE IT! I'LL BITE IT!"

Kylie burst into hysterical tears when he started gnashing his teeth, almost as though he were going to bite her.

"GET AWAY!" the blonde girl shrieked, pressed her hands against the maniac's face and struggling against his gnashing jaw with horrified sapphire eyes. "NO! NO! GET OFF ME! GET AWAY!"

"Ryan!" Izzy wailed, crawling back over and gripping the man's arm. "RYAN! SOMEBODY! HELP US!"

"GET OFF MEEEE!" Kylie bawled, eyes widening in horror when her hands slipped; the next thing she knew, the man's teeth were on her shoulder and a searing agony was exploding in her muscles. It felt as though she had just gotten bit by a horse, which was something that had actually happened to her once when she'd been younger. Her pupils instantly contracted and she let out a breathless scream of pain, flailing her free arm and clawing at the side of his head in an attempt to get his teeth off her shoulder. "OWWWWW! OW! OW! OW! GET OFF! GET OFF! GET OFF! SOMEBODY, HELP! HE'S HURTING ME!"

Right around that moment, Ryan slid over the hood of one of the cars and sent a nasty kick right into the man's face. The force of it both dislodged the psycho from the blonde girl's shoulder and caused the boy himself to fall over; however, before the druggie could recuperate, Izzy started stomping on his head.

"STAY DOWN!" the black girl screamed, dyed red hair disheveled and brown eyes frenzied behind her glasses. "STAY OFF HER! STAY OFF HER! STAY OFF HER!"

"Izzy, shut the fuck up and run!" Ryan angrily bellowed, throwing a rock at her shoulder to snap her out of it; when the black girl bolted, he leapt to his feet and started stomping on the empowered man's back. "Kylie! Hurry! Stand up and get your ass out of here!"

"Okay... I'll try..." the girl whined, clutching her shoulder with shaking limbs and scrunched eyes. "Auugh... ow, ow, ow... shit!"

"Hurry! Get up! Get up!" the boy screamed, stepping on the man's back one last time and lunging at her; he instantly dragged the blonde girl to her feet and started pulling her away from the psycho; she could barely stay on her feet, but she just managed to follow him to wherever he was going. "Hurry, damn it!"

"Over here!" Izzy shouted, waving them over to an area between two more cars: the black man had sealed the parking lot when he'd left, so they were literally trapped in an enormous four-by four square filled with tons of cars, trashcans, and bonfire cans. "Hurry! Come on, we've gotta hide!"

"Ya think?!" Kylie whimpered, sinking down and pressing herself against the car; her face contorted in agony the moment she was sitting. Her hand instantly clamped down on her shoulder, eyes squeezing shut. The few stitches she still had in her upper torso had reopened slightly, but that was the least of her concerns... in fact, she couldn't even feel that sting compared with the man-made horse bite on her arm. "Owww..."

"Kylie," Izzy stated weakly, eying her shoulder with a shaken expression. "You're bleeding!"

"I-I'm all right," the blonde girl croaked, even though she definitely wasn't: even her friend didn't believe the lie since she could plainly see how much pain the blonde was in, but Ryan didn't even glance up since he was too busy trying to do something on his cell. "I'll be okay, Izzy... don't worry."

"Damn it!" the Italian boy finally snapped, thick brows furrowing in anger as he pressed a few more buttons. "Why won't my phone work here?!"

"Mine didn't, either," Izzy proffered, glancing up from what she was doing in her purse. "It says we're out of range."

"Shit," the boy spat, flipping his cell shut and stuffing it in his pocket. "That's just fucking perfect."

"Here," Izzy soothed, pulling a few tissues out of her purse and pressing them against the blonde girl's shoulder; Kylie instantly winced and started shaking violently since the agony literally electrocuted her nerves, but then she took the tissues herself. "Apply some pressure right there... okay?"

It was only then that Ryan noticed just how much blood had stained the blonde girl's collar and sleeve.

"What the hell?!" he whispered in horror, crawling over and carefully inspecting the blood that was soaking through the cloth. "Did he _bite_ you?!"

"Yeah, he bit her," Izzy confirmed, giving a jerky nod as she rummaged through her bag for some pepper spray. "Fucking freak."

"Was that guy even a man?" Ryan asked in a dazed voice, staring off into space. "He ran like fucking spider... or an animal. I can't get it out of my head."

"Did you see?!" Kylie unexpectedly spat, leaning forward and glaring at him with enormous eyes. "What kind of man _looks_ like that?!"

"I don't know," Izzy shakily retorted, giving her a fearful look from behind her glasses. "What exactly did you see?"

"He's not normal!" the blonde girl hissed, frantically shaking her head. "He's really like an animal right now! He was screaming something I didn't get, something about crocodiles crawling out of toilets to eat his... er, dick... but then, he literally started clacking his teeth together and he _BIT_ me!"

"That black bastard," Ryan hissed, clenching his fists and letting his head thump back against the metal of the car. "He's the one who's causing all this."

"What the hell was he saying to us?!" Izzy finally demanded, clutching her neck with angry eyes. "That we've got some sort of bombs in our necks?!"

"That's what he said," Kylie murmured, shivering violently and closing her eyes against the thought. "And there is a pretty big bump under my skin..."

"Where did that fucker take off to?" Ryan asked, glancing at the two girls. "He got us in all this and then just leaves?!"

"We've gotta think of a way out of here," the blonde girl whispered, looking around in terror. "We have to figure out a way..."

"Hey, guess what?" the Italian boy snapped, making her flinch. "I AM thinking!"

All three teens shut their mouths, however, when the sound of a sinister chuckle filled the air somewhere nearby: Kylie immediately clamped a hand over her mouth to hide the whimpering that wanted to slip through, and Izzy's dark face turned exceptionally pale. Ryan's eyes widened when the chuckle came again, along with some maniacal laughter filled with unintelligible babbles about killing the dick-eating crocodiles.

"What?" Izzy whined in an almost inaudible tone, looking around with terrified eyes. "He's back..."

Ryan slowly lowered himself to the ground and peered beneath the car they were leaning against. For several minutes, all three of them were silent.

Then Ryan twitched and let out a small gasp.

"What is it? Ryan, is he there?!" Izzy whispered, clutching Kylie's uninjured arm. "RYAN!"

"Shh!" the boy hissed, throwing a violent green-eyed glare at her; when he turned to look back under, he twitched... then slowly started to sit up in order to peer through one of the car windows. However, before anyone could do anything, the psycho leapt through the glass and landed on Izzy. All three of them screamed, since Kylie and Ryan were knocked backwards by the spraying safety glass. "Augh! What the fuck?!"

"EYAAAAH!" Izzy screeched, kicking her legs when the man's hand started tugging at her shirt; he laughed maniacally when her sleeve was torn clean off. "NO! GET OFF OF ME! EYAAAAH! HELP! HELP ME! KYLIE! RYAN!"

"IZZY!" Kylie shrieked, struggling to get back up. "DON'T LET HIM BITE YOU!"

The black girl screamed again and planted both hands on the man's gnashing jaw, struggling to keep his mouth away from her body. Before he could do anything more, however, Ryan leapt on him from behind and got the bastard in a choke hold. His muscles strained as he jerked the man off of her, but he seemed to be struggling badly since the druggie was abnormally strong for a regular human being.

"Run, Izzy!" Ryan shouted, looking at her with enormous eyes when the druggie leaned back, popped his own shoulders out of their sockets, and grabbed the boy by the back of his shoulders. "W-w-w-what the FUCK?! HOLY SHIT!"

Ryan let out a frightened scream when the man literally threw him over his head and clean across the parking lot: he smashed into the hood of a car and cracked the windshield before sliding down it, unmoving. Izzy continued screeching and struggled to kick her assailant off of her, but she couldn't seem to break his hold on her: his teeth were still clicking loudly, as though he were biting something unseen, and it had the black girl terrified.

"Izzy, no!" Kylie whimpered, fighting to think about what she could do; then she saw her friend's purse lying on the ground; jerkily crawling over to it, the girl grabbed Izzy's purse and struggled to her feet. Hefting the strap, she jerked it over the druggie's head and yanked on it, using the purse itself to restrain him on top of holding him back. Izzy sat up when the blonde girl squeaked and started struggling against the flailing man. "Izzy, hurry! Run!"

"K-Kylie," the black girl sobbed, slowly crawling backwards and shaking her head with tears in her eyes.

"Izzy, get out of here!" the blonde shrieked, looking at her with frantic blue eyes. "RUN!"

Letting out a wail, Izzy Roden scrambled to her feet and bolted away just as the strap on the purse broke: Kylie fell back against the car when the drug addict took off after her friend, muscles shaking as she held the destroyed purse against her chest. Izzy continued screaming as she ran down the parking lot aisles, but she nearly had a heart attack when a large hand clamped over her mouth and harshly jerked her off her feet from the side. She struggled and tried to scream, glasses sliding down her nose and dangling by one ear, but then she heard a familiar voice urging her to shut up.

She calmed a bit when she was dragged inside of an unlocked minivan.

Only when they were inside did Ryan let go of her mouth... but what came out instead of screams were hysterical sobs.

"It's going to be okay, now," Ryan soothed, pulling his legs up to his chin. "We're safe for now."

"No, it's not going to be okay!" Izzy hiccuped, rubbing her streaming eyes after fixing her glasses. "This wouldn't have happened if I hadn't come out tonight!"

"Complaining about it now isn't going to change anything!" Ryan snorted, giving her a grim expression. "We've gotta stay calm!"

"Look at me!" Izzy snapped, holding her shirt out with shaking hands. "I'm a MESS! How am I going to explain this to my older brothers?!"

"Stop bitching about it! I'm more worried about living through tonight than what I'm gonna say to my folks," Ryan retorted, giving her a glare that made her break down and start crying again. "Look, Izzy, I'm sorry... but I'm just as dirty as you are right now, especially since I got chucked across the lot earlier like a fucking toy. Just be thankful that we're not dead yet. Anyway, did you see where Kylie went before you took off? Do you know where she is?"

"No," Izzy sniffed, rubbing her streaming eyes. "I don't know... I didn't see _or_ pay attention after I took off running."

"Well, we can't hear her screaming," Ryan muttered in a low voice, lifting his head and peering out the window, "so she must have found a place to hide."

"Keep your head down, you idiot!" Izzy hissed, clutching his arm. "That creep will see you!"

"I've got an idea," Ryan suddenly muttered, looking at the northern fence with calculating eyes. "Let's make for the other side of that fence over there."

"What?!" Izzy gasped, eyes widening in horror. "It's so high! We'll never get over!"

"There's a major street on the other side of that fence, and a bit further down is a major apartment complex," Ryan snapped, giving the black girl a serious expression; her dark brown eyes watered all over again. "If we make it, someone will see us. We should be able to find a car, or someone, okay?"

"No way!" Izzy whimpered, shaking her head with a terrified expression. "That psycho's gonna catch us!"

"Well, what do we do?!" Ryan protested, slashing his hand through the air for emphasis. "We can't keep running away until someone finds us in the morning!"

"Forget it!" Izzy sniffed, hunkering down with shaking shoulders. "I can't do it!"

For several moments, Ryan merely stared at her with a deep frown and furrowed brows.

"Fine: that's your choice," he finally muttered, staring at her with serious green eyes. "If you don't wanna come, I'll go myself."

"What?!" Izzy gasped, head snapping up; when he started to move for the door handle, she instantly snatched his arm and held him in place. "No!"

"You don't wanna go, right?" Ryan snorted, glancing back at her with contempt. "Or do you?"

"You can't leave me here alone!" Izzy shakily protested, hanging onto his sleeve with enormous eyes and shaking fingers. "Please!"

"Then let's get the hell out of here!" Ryan sighed, staring at her in exasperation; however, he was startled when the black girl lunged at him and pressed her face against his chest with a sob. "W-what are you doing, Izzy?! Knock it off!"

"NO!" the girl shrieked, clinging to him with shaking limbs. "P-p-please... d-don't leave me here..."

"Calm down, Izzy," Ryan stated firmly, watching with unnerved eyes as his best friend started hyperventilating. "Seriously."

"I c-can't!" the black girl sobbed, panting with high-pitched hitches in her breath. "I'm so s-scared... I-I'm sick and t-t-tired of this..."

"You have to get your shit together!" the Italian boy snapped, speaking a little more harshly. "Calm down and breathe already!"

"I never wanna go through that again!" Izzy wailed, bursting into hysterical tears and looking up at him with stricken eyes. "I'm scared! I don't want to!"

"News Flash!" Ryan bellowed, gripping her shoulders with shaken green eyes. "I'm scared as hell, too!"

"I don't wanna go outside!" Izzy shakily stammered through her sobs, muscles shaking violently. "Let's just keep hiding here! If we just keep quiet, and we don't move..."

"Izzy..." Ryan tried to protest. "Just—"

"Don't leave me!" the black girl bawled, begging him to stay put. "Don't leave me! I can't take it!"

"Izzy, listen to me!" Ryan whispered hoarsely, pulling her into a firm hug; her tears instantly halted and she hiccuped. "We're getting out of here! We can't stay and get attacked by that freak, all right? Kylie is all alone somewhere in this parking lot, so she'll have to fend for herself until we can bring back some help! If we work together like always, we can both make it out of here! Listen, I know we can make it! We're not going to die in a place like _this!"_

"You mean it...?" Izzy whimpered, returning the hug with shaking limbs. "We can really do it?"

"Yeah, so come on!" Ryan soothed, patting her back before he slid out of their embrace and scooted over to the side of the car; being careful not to make a sound, he pulled on the handle and carefully opened the rear passenger door. He poked his head out and looked around, listening intently. "Coast is clear."

Thus, the two of them bolted from the car and ran over to the fence.

For several moments, Ryan's face twisted and he looked a little dismayed; Izzy stood beside him, shivering violently.

"So, what now?" the black girl quietly asked, staring at the barbed wire resting on top of the fence. "It's so high up..."

"Okay, yeah," Ryan awkwardly muttered, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's a lot higher than it looked."

"I told you there was no way!" Izzy whimpered, slapping a hand against her forehead. "Plus, those sharp things are up there, too!"

Not even realizing that they were being watched by someone, the two of them continued bickering in hushed tones.

In an SUV across the parking lot, Kyalliara was hiding in the back and peering around with shaken blue eyes: after the druggie had gone after Izzy, she'd done the smart thing and found an unlocked car... but not after setting off a few car alarms. That mistake had drawn the maniac right to her, so she'd had a huge scare just before she'd jumped inside the vehicle she was currently hiding in. However, after about ten minutes of hiding, she'd spotted movement over by the fence.

However, she hadn't been able to see what it was since there were several vehicles in the way.

After a moment, the girl made a serious decision and slowly leaned forward, carefully undoing the latch that opened the back of the SUV. Wincing at the dull clunking noise that swept through the area, the blonde girl carefully lifted the back of the hatch. Then she slowly lowered her head and peered outside.

"Huh?" she whispered, furrowing her brows. "It's Ryan and Izzy!"

Her friends were both looking at the top of the fence with fearful expressions and seemed to be bickering in hushed tones.

However, a sudden metallic thud from the front of the vehicle made the girl let out an involuntary gasp of alarm; her head whipped around, and she froze like a statue since the insane, drug-addled man was literally crawling up the vehicle like an animal. The girl's heart leapt clean into her throat and she started trembling violently, blue eyes larger than dinner plates: the psycho didn't seem to be aware that she was hiding inside the SUV, but she could hear it every time he moved across the metal.

Soon he was on the roof of the van, and Kylie was looking up at it with a terrified expression.

That's when she heard the clanking of a metal fence through the opening in the back of the van.

Her heart jumped when the movement on top of the van went nuts for a moment.

"The crocs..." a sinister voice chuckled, making the girl's hair stand on end. "The crocs... kill the crocs! Kill the cock-eating crocodiles!"

"No!" Kylie gasped, jumping when the man leapt off the roof of the car and sprinted towards where her friends were climbing the fence; she instantly threw the back of the van open and leaned outside. "RYAN! IZZY! LOOK OUT!"

Both of her friends twitched and looked up, but when they saw the druggie running at them with a hysterical laugh, they screamed at the same time.

"Move it, Izzy!" Ryan yelped, climbing up the fence at top speed. "Move! Move!"

"Noooo!" the black girl whined, panting as she scrambled up the fence right after him. "No, no, no, no, NO! NO! NO!"

"Hurry!" Kylie shrieked, planting a hand on the van and watching with horrified blue eyes as the man approached. "Hurry!"

She twitched when he stopped just behind Izzy and leapt, grabbing her around the middle; the black girl screeched and dug her fingers into the metal of the fence before flailing her legs out behind her. The man lifted his legs and laughed, trying to drag her down before snarling like an animal and screeching an unintelligible insult about alligators. Ryan, who had been watching with horrified eyes, frantically started climbing until he hit the top of the railing.

Kylie, forsaking her hiding place when the crazy guy started climbing even higher, slid out of the van and bolted over to Izzy.

"NO!" Izzy wailed, flinging her head back and forth with her eyes squeezed shut. "LET GO! LET GO!"

"Get off my friend!" Kylie shouted, letting out an angry scream as she charged the man; leaping at him with outstretched hands, she grabbed his legs and started struggling to keep him from moving any closer to the back of her friend's neck. He was currently struggling to bite at her hair, and if he got any closer to her, he'd be right on top of her with that gnashing mouth. The blonde girl yipped when the man's foot landed on the side of her face, especially since he seemed to be trying to push her off him, but she held fast. "GET OFF OF IZZY, YOU FREAK!"

"Hang on, girls!" Ryan bellowed, carefully climbing over the barbed wire and jumping down to the ground; he fell over from the landing, then scrambled back up the fence to where Izzy was barely holding on. Whipping his own car keys out, he flipped them into his hands like a weapon and stuck his hand through one of the holes in the fence... and then he started using the metal end to bash the druggie in the temple. "Izzy! Izzy, just hold on!"

"HELP!" the black girl shrieked, pressing her face against the fence and screaming at the top of her lungs. "HEEEEELP!"

The man was literally trying to bite the hell out of her: he was repeatedly lunging for her hair and snapping his teeth together like an animal.

However, that's when Kya noticed that he was holding the fence right beside the girl's face.

"Izzy!" the blonde girl cried, struggling to keep her hold on the man's legs. "Izzy! BITE HIM! BITE HIS HAND!"

Taking her advice, the black girl's eyes snapped open and she saw the man's grimy hand in front of her face; she instantly latched down on it with her teeth, eliciting an banshee-like scream of rage from directly behind her. However, the druggie punched through the fence and nailed Ryan in the face, knocking the boy off the fence with a scream; then his foot lifted and stomped down on Kylie's head, making the girl let out a squeal of pain.

The force of his blows nearly knocked both teens unconscious, and despite Izzy's screams, they couldn't get back up.

"GET OFF!" the black girl cried, letting out a bloodcurdling scream when the man's hand grabbed her hair and jerked her head back. "OOOOWWW!"

"Izzy!" Kylie weakly stammered, struggling to get up and failing. "IZZY!"

The girl merely continued screaming... but then, the air around them filled with static, and Izzy's frizzy red hair started lifting in a weightless manner: Kylie twitched when her glasses cracked and exploded into a million shards of glass. Then the ringing sensation filled the blonde's ears... and it intensified until she couldn't hear a single thing around her. Not the screams... not the snarling drug addict... nothing but that fuzzy ringing sound.

And then... right before her very eyes... the air around Izzy seemed to distort.

"GET OFFFFFFFF!" the black girl screeched, voice seeming to dissolve into the heavy sensation covering Kylie's ears; the moment she said it, a thunderclap without sound slapped against the air like a drum, and Izzy went flying nearly thirty feet into the air. Ryan and Kyalliara both watched with enormous eyes as their friend AND the druggie went sailing clean over the fence and flew right into a billboard: when they hit it, it left a dent in the metal because of how hard the impact was. Thankfully, the crazy man had taken the brunt of the blow, but then both of them fell to the concrete.

Izzy landed on the man's chest and rolled off to the side, wheezing: the air had been knocked out of her lungs.

Ryan's green eyes widened when he saw the headlights of a semi truck coming down the road, and he instantly scrambled to his feet: Kylie watched with a fearful expression as he weakly ran over to the inert black girl and grabbed her under the arms. He started dragging her out of the way, realizing with a jolt that the druggie was getting back up: then the horn started honking, making his green eyes widen. Just before the Italian boy dragged Izzy out of the way, he saw the crazy man's eyes... saw the way the addict lunged at them once again... but then the semi ran him over, crushing him.

When it passed, he was rolling across the ground and his body was mangled.

His neck was facing the wrong direction... and there was a red smear on the concrete.

Ryan sank down with Izzy resting against his arms, but the black girl slowly covered her face and broke down: the sound of her sobs filled the air, rending the silence of the empty city. Nearby, Kylie lowered her head and also started crying, which had Ryan's eyes filling with tears as well: soon, all three of them were crying their eyes out, not really able to stop after what they'd just been put through. They cried for so long that the first touches of sunlight had tinted the horizon when they finally stopped long enough to help Kyalliara over the fence. Then the three of them sat down next to each other, shivering violently and staring off into space.

The man's corpse was still lying in the middle of the street.

That's when the two black men who'd started all of this approached them.

"Very good job," the lanky man chuckled, lighting a cigarette and looking at their fearful faces, "but I'll say it again, just so we're clear: you're gonna have to get better at this since you work for me now. You three are now living borrowed lives: my generosity was the only thing that kept you brats alive."

Kylie looked up with a stricken expression when the man threw Izzy's purse at the black girl.

"Huh?" Izzy whimpered, looking at it with startled eyes. "Wait..."

"That yours, baby?" the black man asked, giving her a cold expression. "First rule of bein' in a gang: don't leave evidence at the crime scene. Battles like the one you fought tonight are gonna continue... so if you don't want your pretty little heads blown off, you'll do everything I say. When I need you again, I'll give y'all a signal before midnight. If you don't feel anything from your bomb reactors, that means you don't have to fight. If you wanna keep livin'... you're gonna have to start killin'."

And with that, he turned and watched as a black car pulled up; when the window rolled down, Kylie spotted a greasy man with balding hair sneering at the black man with an expression of total disdain. The two of them started bitching at each other when he and the other black guy slid inside the back seats, but then the doors were shut and they were driving away. Izzy, Ryan, and Kylie all stared after the vehicle with glazed eyes.

The corpse of the druggie was still lying in the road when the three of them stood up and went their separate ways.

By some unspoken agreement, they didn't say a word to each other as they left.

"I never should have come to San Andreas," Kylie whispered, closing her eyes as she started walking home. "I never should have left my father."

Sadly, there was nothing she could do about it now.

She was trapped in a nightmare.


End file.
